True Love
by Roxy0800
Summary: FINAL CHAPTER NOW UP! Alex/Gene Fanfiction. Set after Episode 8. Will the ever building relationship survive, despite all the obstacles thrown in their way.
1. A date?

_(Sorry it's a very short first chapter, hopefully the rest will be longer. Please let me know what you think, as I really want to improve on my writing skills and the rest of this story. Please R&R.)_

Chapter 1

It was an unusually quiet day in C.I.D that Wednesday, with the most serious crime committed being a reported indecent exposure in the local shopping precinct. They hadn't found it too difficult a case to solve as it had all been caught on CCTV and in panic at the verbal abuse received the offender had left his trousers at the scene. Mind you it was all thanks to Alex that they had identified the man, by checking for any evidence in the trouser pockets, she had found a letter addressed to a Mr D. Hodge.

Her musings were interrupted by Gene stepping out of his office and striding across the room towards her. Just the sight of him made her heartbeat quicken. He strode over to her desk and leant in towards her, his hands resting on the table nearly touching the bent arm that her head was resting on. As his gaze met hers she gave him a coy smile that melted his heart all over again.

Suddenly his head snapped away breaking their eye contact. He walked into the centre of the room and slammed his fist onto the desk next to him, causing Chris Skelton to scream as he was rudely awoken from his afternoon nap. "Right then you bunch of grain weevils, how stupid are you, not checking a suspect's trousers for identification. It was only hanks to Detective Inspector Bollinger knickers here, that we made a collar today. So bugger off home and come back tomorrow when you're ready to work."

"Yes Guv," muttered an astonished looking Ray.

Chris said "sorry Guv," looking sheepish, knowing that he had been otherwise engaged with Shaz in the evidence room for most of the day.

Alex was fuming, "so what's this?" she yelled, "the lay abouts get to go home and get pissed, but I, the only hard bloody worker here had to stay behind."

Gene laughed, he loved the way she managed to get herself so worked up over such a small thing. "No Bolls," he announced "you and I are going to the pictures."

It seemed he said it a bit too loudly though as Ray appeared to have overhead. "What's that Guv, back row of the cinema?"

Gene's gaze was once again averted from a now smiling Alex to give Ray a scowl that could have stopped Hitler. "No Raymondo, I am taking DI Drake to see and educational crime drama that outlines some modern techniques which I feel we could use."

That managed to wipe the smug smirk off his face. However as usual Ray fought back, not wanting to be replaced in the Guv's affections by Alex as Sam Tyler had done before her, "well me and Chris will come as well then" he replied.

Until then Alex hadn't said anything as she watched in amusement at the proceedings taking place. Now, however she felt it was time for her to intervene. This was the second date that she had been wishing for, since the death of her parents and her return to 2008 that never happened. "Actually Chris and Shaz are going out for a meal tonight and you have a date with that Blonde bird," she reminded him, rather pleased at how they were all too busy to accompany them.

A bemused look washed over Ray's face and Gene let out a sigh of relief, that didn't go unnoticed by Alex. "What Blonde bird?" he asked.

"That one whose husband's murder we investigated last week" muttered Alex as she grabbed her white jacket from the back of her chair.

"Oh yeh," exclaimed Ray as a smug smirk returned to his face, "I thought I'd let her cry on my shoulder and then get a bit of downstairs inside."

Hunt reappeared from his office into which he had wandered a few minutes earlier. He came out jangling his car keys and said "that's low even by your standards Ray." He offered his arm to Alex and said "come on Bolls, we don't want to miss the film." As she linked her arm through his they both felt an unfamiliar tingling sensation pass through their bodies. Neither looking at the other as they walked out of C.I.D together, listening to the excited whispering from the rest of the team as they left.


	2. Reeducation

_(Not sure if this chapter is as good as the previous one, sorry, it didn't seem to flow quite as smoothly. The next one should be better. Any way please read and review as I am very keen to improve.)_

Chapter Two

Gene only took her arm for show, yet he quite liked it there linked through the crook of his arm, her legs brushed gently against his as they walked. They both remained silent as they walked down the hall the sound of her heels echoing. Viv looked up off the desk and seeing them coming got up to open the door, "Thanks Viv," said Gene, silently wishing that he had been able to open the door for Bolls. He soon got his chance though as they walked to the car and he helped her in, watching her long slim legs slide gracefully into the car. His eyes drifted up her body and began to focus on her lips, seeing him staring at her she said, "so, are we going to see this 'educational' film or not?" waggling her fingers when she said educational. "Don't waggle you bloody fingers at me," he muttered as he walked round to the driver's door. As he sat down and pulled on his driving gloves, Alex asked "so is it not educational then?" as she pulled down her seatbelt. Gene pressed his foot down on the clutch and gently got the car into gear, his fingers gently brushing against Alex's leg as he reached for the gear stick. "Of course it's not bloody educational" he muttered, only just loud enough for her to hear. "And what have I said about that seatbelt, you're a detective, not a dinner lady!" Alex let go of the seatbelt allowing it to snap back against the side of the car. "Oy, watch it!" exclaimed Hunt, as they roared away from the station towards the cinema. "Oh, I'm sorry" said Alex mockingly, "how can I make it up to you?"

At this a million thoughts rushed through his mind, each involving Alex wearing even less than she did usually. These were discarded almost instantly, as he simply said "I'm sure you'll think of something Bolls," as he said this he placed his hand on her thigh and patted it slightly, before withdrawing it to change gear again. Alex hadn't felt like this before, not even with her ex-husband, but this was Gene Hunt, he drank excessively, smoked heavily and was everything that she didn't look for in a man, and was therefore everything she wanted. Seeing her deep in thought, Gene asked "what you thinkin bout there Bolls?" Oh what the hell she thought, you only live once, even if it's in a different century. "Maybe I could educate you later," she said, before turning to face the window in embarrassment. She was shocked at herself, back in 2008 she would never have flirted so outrageously, and this was only a second date, if it was a date.

They were just pulling up to the cinema when Gene said "So you think you can improve upon the Gene Genie." "Oh I think that there's a lot that I can teach my Manc Lion," replied Alex teasingly as she got out of the car. As Alex stepped out of the car, Gene remained glued to his seat, she had said, my Manc Lion. Had she really meant it, or was it just a slip of the tongue, he wondered.

As he stepped out of the car the cold air hit him, and he saw Alex stood nervously behind the car, shivering slightly as she was only dressed in one of those flimsy off the shoulder tops, that gave him a glimpse of her bra strap. He now wished that he had bothered to bring a jacket, instead of leaving it at the office in an attempt to look casual. Locking the car door, he walked over to Alex he offhandedly wrapped an arm around her waist and lead her towards the entrance.

Alex's mind was working overtime; she knew that she was over analysing everything. Did his arm around her waist symbolise him being protective of her, or simply his desire to sleep with her. She could see that he was becoming uncomfortable with her lack of response at his gesture, so she draped her arm around his waist as well and snuggled into his body as they walked, knowing that now she had crossed the boundary between being friendly and flirting. Letting her go to open the door of the cinema, Gene immediately felt the absence of her body next to his, and so was glad 

when she took his hand to as they sauntered over to the board with the film listings on it. "10 minutes," said Gene, "right then Bolls, popcorn, salted or sweet." This must be a date she thought, he's buying popcorn, on any other day he'd have had her buying it. "Sweet please, if that's O.K. with you Gene." She was nervous now, thoughts rushing through her head at an alarming speed. Where would they sit? How would they sit? What would happen?


	3. Sitting on the back row?

_(So here it is Chapter three, quite short, but it will be followed up soon. premierludwig, I laughed reading your review as that is the exact same film I had planned for this story, watching it on Sunday I thought this is such a Gene film. Hope you enjoy, please continue to review it.)_

Chapter Three

As gene handed her the bag of popcorn, his fingers lightly brushed against hers, shocking her once again at the effect that he had on her. He lazily draped his arm across her shoulders and pinched a piece of her popcorn, causing her to jokily punch his chest in mock annoyance. "Bolls, how can hurt me, after I've brought you popcorn?"

He was enjoying joking with Alex, it seemed to him that she had been distant since the Price's death in the car bomb, but she was finally beginning to come out of her shell again. "Yes, but you steal the popcorn," she replied, flirtily placing another piece in her mouth.

Dropping his arm from her shoulder Gene pushed open the door to the cinema screen and ushered Alex through and up the stairs. Giving her the option as to where they were going to sit, not wanting to go for the too cliché option of sitting on the back row, especially as it was currently full of teenagers who all of a sudden made him feel very old. Taking his hand Alex led him into an empty row that was a few away from the back. She was struggling to remember the last time she had been to the cinema on a date. She had been with Molly plenty of times to see films like 'The Holiday' and the latest 'James Bond' film, but the last time she had been on a date was probably back in high school.

They were both fairly uncomfortable as they took their seats, waiting anxiously for the film to start. Neither of them knew where they stood with the other, were they a couple? Or just good friends who flirted a lot?

The film that Gene had chosen was 'Raiders of the Lost Arc' definitely wasn't a police drama, thought Alex. It started off fairly gentle, and she took the opportunity to snuggle up to Gene, tucking her legs underneath her, and leaning back against Gene's chest. Feeling Alex curl up against his side Gene nonchalantly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. If this is what she's like now he thought, wait until the snakes arrive. Feeling cosy now, Alex settled down to watch the film, lazily dropping pieces of the popcorn into her mouth.

"This is actually a bloody good film," murmured Gene into Alex's ear through her hair that occasionally brushed against his cheek as she moved.

"Mmn," muttered Alex as she shifted her position slightly so that she was able to face him properly, without cricking her neck. As she moved round Gene dropped his hand down to her waist and gently traced circles on her back. He could feel the air between them heating up as their breath mingled, feeling it too Alex slowly moved her hand up to his jaw, just as she had done after the incident with the freezer. Unsurely she brushed her fingers across his lips, surprised at how silky, soft and smooth they were. This was the moment Gene had waited for since he laid eyes on her in that tight red dress and ridiculous fur coat.

But still he waited, not wanting to make the first move for fear of moving too fast and scaring her, after all she was a woman he thought, they were well known for changing their minds at the last moment. His wife had nearly done it on their wedding day, he remembered, but even then he wasn't half as nervous as he was now. Knowing that she would have to make the first move Alex slipped her other hand onto his thigh, and tenderly brushed her lips against his. Tracing the curves of her body with his had Gene raised it up to her face and brushed back her hair, as she broke away from his lips. Sensing how unsure she was he leant in again.


	4. A parking ticket

_(Hiya, Just realised that in the excitement of writing this fanfic I forgot to write a disclaimer so here it is. I don't own any of the characters in this fanfic as they are property of Kudos and the BBC. No profit is being made from this fanfic. Now that's the formality's out of the way, I would just like to say thank you for all the lovely reviews, and the helpful pointers on how I can improve, hopefully I have used them, though I can't promise that my spelling and grammar has totally improved, so please let me know if you spot any errors. This is my longest chapter yet, and I think also one of the best. Sorry about the cliff hanger, tehe.)_

Chapter Four

The rest of the film had been a blur to both Alex and Gene, when the final credits finished and the lights came up, Alex was still sat in her seat but with her legs across Gene's lap, his hair slightly ruffled from Alex running her fingers through it. Now they sat there with Gene twiddling her hair around his fingers. "Right then Bolls, I guess we better be off then, unless you want to give the cleaners a hand picking up all this popcorn."

Alex looked around them and laughed at the popcorn scattered on the floor around them, from the times she had attempted to feed it to him, but for some reason he had been more interested in nibbling her fingers. She slipped her legs off his and stood up, brushing the popcorn pieces off her as she did so. She stopped and looked down at Gene who was still sat there gazing intently at her. "What are you doing?" she asked him, not quite sure whether his eyes were focused on hers or her breasts.

"Just admiring the view," he joked, and let her pull him to his feet. Walking out of the cinema hand in hand, they realised how dark it had gotten outside as the only light came from the glowing street lamps above them.

As they walked along the pavement, it was strangely quiet, Alex wasn't sure whether she preferred noise, or silence. Her thoughts were interrupted when they reached the car, by a short stocky parking attendant who seemed to be particularly annoyed. "Oy, you," he shouted. "Is this your car?"

It was as if his frustration passed on to Gene, whose face looked like thunder. Who does this bloke think he is? Gene thought to himself, he had been having a lovely evening with Alex before this bumbling buffoon had turned up asking ridiculous questions. "Of course that's my bloody car," he replied, "and would you mind keeping your voice down, or I'll have you done for disturbance of the peace." Seeing Alex wince at his equally loud voice, he took a deep breath and calmly said, "Sorry, how can I help you mate?"

The attendant still looked furious, his face was blood red, and they could nearly see the smoke coming from his ears. "You can't park here, its double yellows" he stated. Bloody parking attendants, thought Alex, did they have nothing better to do with their time, than spot car tires about 30cm over double yellow lines? Knowing that Gene would be thinking the same thing, she squeezed his hand, reminding him to keep his anger in check.

Feeling Bolls squeeze his hand reminded him of when they had been stuck in the vault, after the light had finally gone out, and that was when he remembered, he was a police officer. Reaching into his pocket Gene drew out his police identification and flashed it at the attendant saying "DCI Hunt, London Metropolitan Police. Sorry, it was urgent police business and there was nowhere else to park."

Just a glimpse at the police badge and the car parking attendant starting retreating slowly from them, muttering "Oh, ermn, sorry," before turning his back on them and swiftly striding into his portacabin shutting the door behind him.

"Isn't that an abuse of police power?" asked Alex angrily, fuming at how Gene used his status to get out of trouble. If anyone dared do that in 2008 then it wouldn't be accepted but here, the police could just do anything and get away with it. No wonder there was such a lack of trust and respect shown towards them from the public.

"No Bolls," replied Gene softly, "that is called using my power and status against the miserable buggers in the world looking to spoil my night out. Any way he obviously had something to hide, because he didn't even ask what urgent police business we were on, and he looked like a typical nosy bugger." With that he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her up against the car, passionately kissing her in order to stop her berating him further. At first Alex fought against it, pushing her hands against his chest, but eventually she gave in, as she knew that secretly she wanted it as much as him. When he felt that she was relaxed again he pulled away, looking deeply into her eyes. Alex lifted her arm and curled her fingers around his neck, pulling him into her again.

He gently pulled his lips away from hers, and said "Alex." It was just one little word but to Alex it spoke thousands, neither of them good enough to describe the intense emotion behind the way he said her name. It was emotion that no-one could fake or ignore, and it coaxed Alex on to say the word's that she knew he wouldn't be brave enough to say first.

"Gene, look I know this is just our second date..."

"Second date Bolls," he said interrupting her, "what about all those nights we spent in Luigi's, I think they add up to at least three more dates."

"O.K. then our fifth date, but if tonight we were to... I mean if you were to." She was stuttering now, and making a fool of herself she imagined, she could see him gazing intently at her, wanting to know what she was trying to say. Alex took a deep breath and said "do you want to come back to my place?"

Wow, thought Gene, it was the question he had been dying to ask, but hadn't dared for fear of her rejection again. However though those words made his heart leap, he was also scared, scared that when they woke up in the morning that would be the end of it all. No more cosy nights sat in their corner booth at Luigi's, just awkward moments at work. "Alex, I would love to, but..." Oh no thought Alex he's going to make an excuse, like she had done the eve of her parents death, now she knew how it felt to be rejected, she had obviously read the signals all wrong she thought. Gene continued his sentence, hoping he wasn't going to muck up whatever relationship they had," if I do, can I take you out again, or... Or will that just be it?" Watching the hope flood back into Alex's eyes he could see that he had said the right thing. Placing her had on his cheek Alex leant forwards and whispered in his ear "of course, we can go out again, you don't think I'm letting go of my Gene Genie that easily do you?"

My Gene Genie, he repeated the words in his head, and was surprised at how happy they made him feel. He had never liked that sense of belonging to someone before, not even with his ex-wife, and he had shown that by having as many affairs that he could. It was different now though, he knew that as long as Alex wanted him, he would be there with her. "Well then..." Gene muttered and began to pick of where they left off, getting totally lost in the kiss. Gradually they got more and more passionate, yet as Gene looked up as Alex was gently kissing his neck he saw the one person who could threaten absolutely everything they had, walking in their direction. It was dark but he would recognise his profile anywhere, he had haunted his dreams, and now he thought this reality might turn into a nightmare.


	5. Competition

_(So here it is chapter five, I apologise as I haven't proof read this as thoroughly as I would like as my laptop is nearly out of battery, and its late. I will try and do it as soon as possible. Please review, constructive criticism is appreciated.)_

Chapter Five

"Evan" muttered Gene, remembering the day that man stepped into his life, and hating him almost instantly.

"What did you just call me" yelled Alex furiously.

"No, no," said Gene calmly, placing his hands on her shoulders, and massaging them soothingly. "I meant that bloke who you have a very complicated relationship with, is walking right towards us, whilst I have you pressed against the car."

"Oh, shit. Can't we just pretend we haven't seen him and get back to where we were?" She murmured in his ear, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Well Alex, much as I would love to, I don't want to give Mr So Stuck Himself He's Inside Out an excuse to screw this up."

"So 'this' really means that much to you then?" she asked, waggling her fingers when she said 'this'. "Of course it does, and how many times do I have to tell you about those bloody fingers?" whispered Gene, before leaning in and kissing her on the cheek.

Prising themselves apart they turned around to see Evan about two metres away from them, Gene took Alex's hand, squeezing it as she had done his earlier. "Evan, what a surprise to see you here," she sounded more confident than she actually was, here he was, her god father. Only he didn't know that, and he had previously hinted at liking her a lot more than a friend. This is the type of rubbish storyline that they would use in a soap, thought Alex.

Evan was obviously shocked to see Alex and Gene together outside of work, especially having seen them kissing up against the car. "Yes," he said nervously "I just fancied catching the new 'Indiana Jones' film, actually I was going to..." Gene could see the way which this conversation was going and didn't like it; he knew that this smooth talking bastard had had his eye on Alex from the very beginning.

"How's Alex?" Gene asked, reminding him of the other responsibilities in his life, and also acting out of genuine concern for the girl, she had gone through a terrible time.

"Oh ermn," muttered Evan obviously confused, looking at Alex for guidance, then her remembered that Gene was talking about his god daughter Alex, Tim and Caroline's daughter. "She's fine" he answered. Gene wasn't convinced by his answer, he had failed to mention the death of her parents and how she was coping with it.

"Getting over it then?" he prompted.

"Yes just about, any way Alex, I popped round to see you earlier. I was actually going to ask you to come and see the film with me." The hairs of Gene's neck began to bristle again, though this time out of anger, rather than Alex's touch. Who did this bloke think he was? Swooping in and asking Alex out, right in the middle of his own date.

"Gene just took me to see the film. It's very good though." She added, trying to soften her rejection slightly, but he didn't seem to give up that easily. "Another time perhaps?" Alex desperately didn't want to give him any hope that she would ever accompany him to the cinema, or any over type of date.

"Maybe.... You could bring Alex; I bet she loves the cinema." Hopefully suggesting he brought his god daughter would show him that she wasn't interested. "Yes, well we should really be getting off." Gene interrupted their conversation, seeing that Alex was noticeably uncomfortable.

"Oh yes, I could see you were in a hurry. See you soon Alex" Evan said, before he continued walking towards the cinema, without looking back once.

Gene opened the passenger door for Alex, and took her hand to help her in. When Gene was sat in the driver's seat Alex said, "Yes because we were obviously in such a hurry." She seemed annoyed, this confused Gene, he thought that she had wanted to get out of there, but now she was having a go at him for giving them an excuse.

"Well, I just couldn't stand there with him anymore. That bloke really pisses me off. But if you want to go and get friendly with him then be my guest." He was over reacting thought Alex, but then she remembered how jealous she had felt at every woman he spoke to.

"I'm just saying that it wasn't a very good excuse. You know I don't want to go and 'get friendly with him.'" The fact that he could even suggest her having any feelings towards Evan annoyed her, but then she thought they hadn't exactly discussed their feelings towards each other very fully.

Gene knew he had said the wrong thing, but he just got so angry and worked up sometimes, "Well what should I have said, please excuse us dear sir, but I have promised this fine young lady that tonight I will shag her senseless. And will you stop wagging those stupid bloody fingers," he said attempting to lighten the conversation.

It appeared to have worked when she answered "Ok, maybe the first one was a better excuse." As they drove in a companionable silence Gene's mind returned to the moments before Evan had arrived, "Why were you so angry when I said Evan?" he had been shocked at how she had erupted with anger when he said his name.

"Oh, I thought you said something else," replied Alex knowing that he wouldn't think that her reply was sufficient. Gene could tell that something was wrong from her body language. She was turned away from him, only facing him when she needed to answer a question.

"What, what did you think I said?" he asked.

"Another woman's name" Alex muttered, so quietly that he nearly couldn't hear her. "Now why on earth would I want to say another woman's name whilst I was kissing you?" Gene asked softly, trying to let her know that she could trust him; he moved his right hand to lie on top of hers, which was placed in her lap.

"It doesn't matter," Alex said as she turned to face out of the window again, but not removing his hand from hers.

Gene wasn't going to give up that easily, "no something's obviously bothering you, so you can tell me."

Alex let a low sigh release from her mouth, then she said "It's just my ex-husband; well we split up because he had an affair."

Sensing that there was more to be said, Gene prompted her "Go on."

Taking a deep breath Alex told her story, "I only found out, when we were..."

Gene knew what was coming, "doing it," he murmured quietly.

"Yeh doing it," Alex confirmed quietly.

"And.." Gene said prompting her again.

"He called me Emily." Alex stated.

As they pulled up to Luigi's and Alex's flat Gene asked, "Who was she?"

"She a secretary, my secretary she knew all of my diary dates, obviously making it easier for them," replied Alex, he could hear the bitterness and hurt still in her voice.

Gene felt his anger spilling over as he yelled "What a bastard!!"

Although pleased, Alex was also angered by his remark, "But I thought, you'd had lots of affairs," she asked accusingly.

Gene now realised how hypocritical he must have sounded, "Yes but by that time our marriage was over, and we both knew about them," he tried to explain how even though he'd had affairs; it just wasn't quite the same.

"Ok," murmured Alex, and leant in to hug him to show that everything was Ok.

As Gene got out of the car to open her door he asked "So Luigi's or straight back to yours?"

The million dollar question thought Alex, and she was certain of the answer "Straight back to mine I think. The rest of the team might be at Luigi's."

It was only now that Gene realised the impact that their relationship could have at work. "Yeh that could be awkward," joked Gene, knowing full well that they would have to discuss it sooner or later.

"They'll have to find out sometime," reminded Alex, never wanting the day to come that would either make or break their relationship.

"Yes, but not just yet. Let's just concentrate on us for now," said Gene, echoing Alex's thoughts.

"I like the sound of that," murmured Alex, as they walked through the door to Luigi's and her flat. She pressed him up against the wall at the bottom of the stairs leading to her flat, eager to show how she felt towards him.

Then they heard a voice from inside the restaurant that scared them more than any criminal in London. "Guv, how was the film?"


	6. Discovered?

_(This chapter is alot longer than most of the others, I hope you enjoy it. I have tried to take into acount all the critisism in the reviews, so please keep them coming.)_

Chapter Six

"Shit" muttered Gene under his breath, their secret relationship hadn't even stayed secret for a day, and how was he supposed to stay in control of his team after they had seen his DI pushing him up against the wall, not that he hadn't enjoyed it, because he had, but he wanted this relationship with Bolls to be more than just physical, but now it looked like they wouldn't get the chance.

"Did they see us?" asked Alex, she knew it sounded like she was asking a stupid question, but surely there was a chance that they hadn't seen what they were doing. She hoped they hadn't been seen, that would spell the end for her relationship with Gene and possibly her job as well.

"Well they must have done to know I was here," he said, still not quite believing that they had been caught in the act, anyway wasn't Chris supposed to be on a romantic date with the young WPC?

"Perhaps they heard you," Alex suggested wishing with all her heart that they had.

"Bolls I haven't said a word since we walked through that door," he hadn't needed to he thought. It seemed with him and Alex all they had to do was look at each other now and he could tell what she was thinking and feeling. Looking in her eyes he had seen the love and passion, which he knew would be reflected in his own.

"Well, like I said, they had to find out sometime," she reminded him, she knew that no relationship could remain a secret forever, her husband's affair had proved that, just one misplaced word and the whole sorry tale had unravelled.

"So how are we going to do this?" asked Gene, he didn't know why he was asking Bolls it wasn't as if she would have any more of an idea than him. He was normally so open with Chris and Ray about his relationships, but those were the ones that didn't matter, but this was Alex, a woman who he really cared about.

"Just act natural," said Alex interrupting his train of thought. Realising how ironic it was that she was telling him to act natural. When she was around him now, she acted anything but natural, back in 2008 she would have turned her nose up at women like her, but now it just felt right. Around him she was like a silly school girl, arguing one minute and flirting heavily the next. That was far from natural.

"What d'ya mean natural?" asked Gene, but he was too late. Alex strode into the restaurant, brimming with that confidence that had first attracted him to her. Even when they had first picked her up and thought she was a prostitute, or 'street worker' as she called them, she hadn't been fazed at all, well until she had fainted that was.

"Hi Chris, Shaz, how was the meal?" She said nodding to each of them in turn. Chris, Shaz and Ray were sat around their usual table and looked shocked to see Alex walk in when they had been expecting the Guv. She didn't know why, they all knew that they had gone to the cinema together, though it was true that she hadn't been in Luigi's quite as much as she used to. Shaz was the first to break the silence, she was obviously thoroughly loved up with Chris, Alex could tell from the beaming smile plastered across her face.

"Oh it was great Ma'am; Chris took us to this posh place up river." Alex couldn't remember ever being that happy because of a boyfriend; her ex-husband had never treated her to lavish dates, preferring a night in front of the television watching the football with a curry on his lap.

"Yeh it was great. Where's the Guv?" Chris seemed genuinely happy with the way their date had gone, but somewhat concerned about the where abouts of the Guv. For Christ's sake thought Alex they had only been on a date to the cinema, and as far as they knew it was an educational cop drama. Unless he had seen them in that rather compromising position, in which case he was probably digging for gossip by asking where the Guv was.

"Don't worry girls the Guv is here," announced the Guv, striding through the entrance to Luigi's making a grand entrance as usual. What was it with him, thought Alex, he was always slamming doors, racing his car and shouting at anyone who got in his way. Yet there was still one problem, how had Chris known that Gene was here when he supposedly hadn't seen them together.

"We thought you two were back," said Chris, he was amazingly good at stating the obvious thought Gene. Of course he had thought they were back, when he had shouted to the Guv, unless he heard voices in his head.

"Just out of interest, how did you know?" said Gene, asking the question that Alex had been trying to find a way to ask, but hadn't quite dared.

"We heard the Quattro pull up outside," explained Chris, at this both Alex and Gene let out a large sigh of relief, which quickly stopped when they realised how close they were again to giving the game away. Not that it was a game thought Gene; this was the most serious relationship he had been in, in his whole life. That was quite sad he thought, he was past middle aged, though if he had met someone before then he wouldn't have met Alex, after all she made his life worth living.

"Very Good detective skills there Chris, we'll make a DI out of you yet," said Alex, attempting to recover her cool. Seeing how flustered Alex had become, Gene took a seat in the bench of the booth opposite Chris and Shaz, before signalling for Alex to join him. Looking up he saw Ray coming over from the bar with five bottles of beer balanced on a tray.

"Look like a bloody waitress there Raymondo," exclaimed Gene, "date not go so well?" he added, attempting to field any awkward questions that he might send in their direction. It wasn't as if he wanted to know the intricacies of Ray's date with this blonde widower.

"No it bloody well didn't," exploded Ray, "dozy cow muttered something about preparing for a funeral." Hearing this Alex snorted with laughter, nearly choking on the beer that she was drinking. Ray shot her and evil look, but Alex just couldn't contain her laughter. The fact that he couldn't comprehend that a widower might be more preoccupied with her husband's funeral than shagging the police officer who had been dealing with his case. Shaz seemed to share her viewpoint.

"Well that's what tends to happen after someone's husband dies," said Shaz sarcastically. She sometimes got so annoyed with Ray and his sexist attitude, that she could hit him, or worse. But she knew he was part of Chris's past and therefore part of Chris. Just then a familiar song came onto the radio, and Alex remembered where it was from, the days surrounding her parent's death just before she drove over Angus Ashton's car in the pink tank.

"Ray likes this song don't you Ray?" announced Alex, hoping to prevent an argument between Shaz and Ray.

"Oh yeh," muttered Ray, trying to sound non-committal, not wanting to give the Guv any ammunition for further teasing about liking a song written by a poof.

"Fancy a dance Guv?" asked Alex attempting to make it sound like it was a casual invitation. Secretly she just couldn't wait to feel his body close to hers again, it could only have been 15minutes before the incident on the stairs but already she was feeling his absence. How she managed before today, she couldn't remember, couldn't imagine her life without Gene.

"I'm not a poof," announced Gene, regretting his sharp words almost instantly. He tried to catch Alex's gaze to tell her that he didn't mean it, but it would look suspicious, especially after the odd looks Ray had shot him after Alex asked him. In that one look he tried to tell her how he would give his right arm just to dance with her tonight. Seeing his look and understanding him perfectly, Alex attempted to divert any suspicion.

"Ray will dance won't you Ray?" The last time Alex had danced with Ray had been at the fancy dress party on board the boat, even then he hadn't been able to stop his hands from wandering down to her bum, trying to cop a feel, all of the time under the watchful eyes of Gene Hunt.

"Yeh go on Ray, show us your moves," joked Shaz, trying to catch Chris's gaze so that she could ask him to dance, but he seemed more interested in drinking his beer than any form of interaction with her. Alex stood up, running her hand up the inside of Gene's leg as she did so, as she stretched her legs Gene ran his hand down the back of her leg, trying to make up for the fact that he had rejected her offer of a dance. Quickly flashing him a smile, Alex reached over and grabbed Ray's hand, dragging him over to the area that Luigi had cleared of tables. Thankfully the same song was still on, so Alex wouldn't be thrown into an awkward slow dance with Ray. God he was a terrible dancer thought Alex as she attempted to get him to loosen up.

"I'm exhausted," Ray announced, before the song had even finished. He had sweat pouring down his face and looked worn out, that must be the effect of alcohol Alex thought.

"You've got no stamina Ray," teased Alex as he walked back over to the booth, and joined Chris and Shaz again. Alex also returned to the booth, but instead of sitting down, leaned over the table and took a swig from her bottle, giving Gene a flash of her cleavage. This gave Gene the encouragement he needed.

"Unlike me Raymondo, I have plenty of stamina when it matters," the comment wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, but as he said it he caught Alex's eye, and saw her blush.

"Maybe you'd like to show me," Alex replied, flirting very obviously now but she didn't care. They would think it was the drink talking she reasoned, they didn't know that tonight she had only had that one bottle of beer, and most of that was still in the bottle.

"Maybe I will," replied Gene, as Alex took his hand and lead him up to the dance floor. The song was slow now, but neither of them minded. It was a welcome excuse for Gene to wrap his arm around her waist once again and take her hand in his. Pulling her body to his, he twirled her around the small space that there was.

"You're a surprisingly good dancer Mr. Hunt," murmured Alex in his ear, loving the feeling of being guided around this room so gracefully. Yet most of all loving the man who was doing it with her.

"Yeh well me and the ex had dancing lessons as part of our marriage counselling," this was one of the few things that he had revealed to her about his previous marriage.

"How did that go?" asked Alex, knowing that it obviously hadn't worked else they would still be together. Also knowing from her own experience that one dance lesson or meal out couldn't fix a marriage that was already broken, only love could do that.

"Not well, she had an affair with the dance teacher," he said it jokily, but Alex could tell that he was serious. Tightening her grip on his shoulder, they swayed slowly on the spot until the song finished, both of them desperately trying to resist the urge to kiss the other. Breaking away from his embrace, trying hard to recover from the intense passion she had just felt, Alex said.

"Shaz, Chris why don't you have a go?" She had seen the hesitant glances that had passed between them, neither of them managing to catch the others gaze. They were a great couple she thought, but like most young people in love, they needed a gentle push in the right direction.

"I can't dance Ma'am" muttered Chris, not wanting to embarrass himself on the dance floor, especially in front of Shaz.

"Come on Chris I'll teach you. Shaz you can dance with the Guv," it wasn't an ideal plan she thought, but she would eventually get them dancing together, and put some distance between her and the Guv.

"Oh I don't know," muttered Gene, he didn't want to dance with anyone but Bolls, knowing however that if they continued the way they were it wouldn't be long before they were back to where they had been before on the stairs. Which although he enjoyed it greatly, it may be seen as slightly inappropriate in the middle of a restaurant.

"Either that or you can dance with Chris," Alex said pointedly at him, giving him one of those looks that said, go along with me or else. Not wanting to do anything to upset her Gene reluctantly said.

"Fine then come on Shaz." His grip was more rigid with her and the space between them much wider than it had been when he and Alex had danced before. Ray had been growing more and more uncomfortable, and as the couples started to dance again announced.

"I'm off now, see you later." With that he walked out of Luigi's barely looking back. As the couples spun in between the tables, they attracted the attention of the few remaining people left in the restaurant, some of them got up and joined in the dancing as well.

"I'm tired now, not quite got your stamina Gene," announced Alex as she parted from Chris and led him over towards where Gene and Shaz were dancing.

"Even the Gene Genie gets tired Alex," said Gene, taking the lead from Alex, realising that she was trying to get Chris and Shaz to dance together.

"You two can dance together now," pronounced Alex, not very subtly but it seemed to do the trick, Chris now took Shaz up in his arms, and soon they were back in the centre of the now packed dance space.

"Another drink Bolls?" asked Gene as they swayed together on the edge of the dancers. Alex ran her hand up his back and coiled her fingers behind his neck.

"Are you trying to get me drunk Gene?" Alex whispered in his ear, nibbling it slightly as she did so.

"And what if I was?" he whispered in her ear, pushing her hair out of the way, twirling it around his fingers. Upon hearing this Alex briefly looked around, and seeing Chris and Shaz to be otherwise engaged on the other side of the room, she leant in to tenderly kiss him on the lips.

"Well you don't need to, but I would take advantage of the fact that you're paying," she replied, in answer to his earlier question.

"Oy Luigi," Gene yelled, "another bottle of your house rubbish."

* * *

About an hour later, all the wine had gone and most of the customers had left the restaurant, probably sensibly retiring to their homes as it was gone 12 O'clock. Sensing that Luigi wanted them to leave, and wanting to get Bolls safely upstairs, Gene said.

"Right then you lot," referring to Shaz and Chris, who were now sat in the booth, Shaz on Chris's lap. "I expect to see you at work, bang on time tomorrow morning."

"Ok Guv, come on Chris we should be getting back," said Shaz leading a slightly drunk Chris out of the Italian Restaurant, with him mumbling.

"Right then, bye Guv, Ma'am."

"Right then Bolls, Luigi is practically asleep behind that bar so I guess we'd best be off," said Gene slightly nervously not knowing what would happen next.

"Yep, night Luigi," said Alex who was equally keen leave.

"Good night, Signor and Signora," said Luigi who had suddenly woken up to see the departure of the new couple.

"You coming up to mine then?" asked Alex, as they reached the bottom of the stairs leading to their flat.

"Don't mind if I do Drake, don't mind if I do," replied Gene, taking her hand and following her up the stairs. Alex was just fumbling with the key in the lock, with Gene's hands wandering up and down their curves when they heard, a shout.

"Alex! Alex! I love you.!"


	7. An unwanted visitor

_So here it is chapter seven, the chapters may be a bit slower coming up for a while as revision has just kicked in for my second Science GCSE module, however it could mean that they are also written quicker as I need ALOT of revision breaks. Anyway, you'll be pleased to know that although there is a slight cliffhanger at the end of this one, it's not as big as the last. Thanks again for all of the reviews, keep them coming._

* * *

Chapter Seven

"That wasn't you was it?" asked Alex, shocked at the words she had just heard, especially as they hadn't seemed to come from Gene's mouth, as that had been firmly planted on her neck. Those three words were supposed to be romantic and tender, but somehow they had sounded vulgar and dirty.

"No it bloody well wasn't, even I'm more romantic than that," Gene was annoyed that someone had gotten there before him, he wasn't usually the romantic type but he had been trying to find the right moment to tell Alex exactly how he felt, but now someone had spoilt it.

"So who the hell was it then?" asked Alex, again asking a question that she knew Gene couldn't answer.

"If it's that bloody bastard..." muttered Gene under his breath, something inside him had snapped, there was only one person as far as he knew that it could be, unless Alex had any more secret admirers hidden away. His angry thoughts were interrupted by Luigi who appeared at the bottom of the stairs in his dressing gown, an item of clothing that Gene had dreamt of Alex wearing after one of their many imaginary nights of passion.

"Signora Drake, there is a rather drunken man waiting for your outside," announced Luigi in that thick Italian accent that Alex still hadn't gotten used to. It seemed so funny compared to all of the fake ones used in the modern Italian restaurants she was used to in 2008.

"Who is it Luigi?" asked Alex, hoping to discover the identity of the man, before she had to go down and face her unknown admirer, who had declared his rather drunken feelings for her in the middle of the street.

"It is your friend, who you brought here before," said Luigi. Well that was a mistake thought Alex; I never should have let that guy know where I live. Though she had led him on slightly, she had never had any intention of forming a relationship with the guy other than friendship, that would just be too weird. He was her godfather and confidant, yet she could see how he had gotten the wrong idea, he was a man after all.

"It's that bloody Evan bloke," announced Gene, though he hated Evan for ruining their once already that evening, he hoped that it was him outside. As, if it wasn't it would mean that Alex had brought yet another man round for dinner, a posh, snobby lawyer he could cope with, but for all he knew it could be a rich bloke with a house in the country and charisma that sparkled like champagne.

"Can't we just leave him?" asked Alex, kissing Gene's neck again and slowly running her hands up the inside of his shirt, feeling his bare skin for the first time, and was surprised at how toned his stomach was. He didn't have a six-pack but it wasn't the pot belly that she had imagined, not that it actually mattered she thought, he was Gene and that was more than good enough for her. Gene took her question as confirmation that it was Evan who had announced his feelings in the middle of the street at a time that was now well past midnight. Poor bloke he thought as he dipped his head so that his lips would meet Alex's. They were however interrupted by a cough from Luigi, who they were shocked to find still stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"I would much appreciate it if we could get some sleep. My wife, she is very tired." He said it very politely but Alex could tell that the gentle Italian was starting to lose his patience. Quickly removing her hands from Gene's chest and lips from his she straightened up, feeling slightly self conscious she smoothed down her clothes and patted down her somewhat ruffled hair.

"All right Luigi, don't get your knickers in a twist, we'll be right down," said Gene softly, feeling sorry for Luigi, having to put up with this. Taking Alex by the hand, he quickly ran down the stairs pulling her behind him.

"Sorry," muttered Alex, apologising for both the shouting in the street and the performance she and Gene had just put on whilst he was stood watching. "Sorry," she repeated again but to Gene this time. Evan had already interrupted their date once and now he was doing it again.

"It's not your fault, it's just that thing you do," he said putting her mind at rest that he wasn't going to leave her and also flirting slightly at the same time.

"What thing is that then?" asked Alex, intrigued at what Gene thought she had done to deserve this unwanted attention from her godfather, in another life. Gene stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading down to Luigi's and pulled her towards him slightly. Stroking her jaw with his thumb he looked in her eyes and said,

"Your laugh, your voice" he then kissed her on the forehead and pushed her on ahead of him up the stairs, "oh and the way your bum wiggles," he said as an afterthought before jogging to catch her up. Alex turned around and playfully punched his arm, then brushed a stray lock of blonde hair out of his eyes. Turning to look into the street she saw Evan standing in the centre of it, looking at right at them.

"What the hell are you doing here?" shouted Alex, she hadn't expected to be so angry but seeing him there just made something inside her explode.

"I had to tell you..." but Alex didn't let him finish.

"Well you can tell me when you've sobered up" yelled Alex. Suddenly a headache hit her, wincing she closed her eyes and was instantly enveloped with pictures_. It was a few months after the death of her parents, and Evan had been out to see a film, but he was late back. The teenage girl from next door had come round to babysit, but it was nearly one in the morning and she was anxious to be getting home. Alex was lying in bed when the door banged shut, Evan was home. She heard him pay the babysitter and let her out before locking up, she must have laid there for fifteen minutes waiting for him to come up and see her like he always did, becoming impatient she padded downstairs and saw Evan asleep on the couch. Taking care to tread quietly she walked over to the coach and clambered onto his lap. _

"_Whoa Alex, What are you still doing up?" his words slurred together and Alex could tell that he was drunk, pushing her off his lap he ran to the toilet and was violently sick. Alex had spent the rest of the night, mopping Evan's brow and helping him up to the toilet. _Suddenly she was bought back to reality by a hand on her face, Gene was brushing a stray lock of hair from her eyes,

"He can't go back like this," Alex whispered into his ear, not wanting the Drunken Evan to hear her and get the wrong idea. However this didn't go down well with Gene.

"Why the bloody hell not?" somehow Gene managed to shout whilst whispering. It sounded to him like Bolly would rather spend the night with Evan drunk on her sofa, than with him, the Manc Lion, in her bed. Seeing his apparent jealousy, Alex tried to reassure him, moving her hand through his hair, and kissing him tenderly on the lips, nibbling the bottom lip as she parted.

"Well he thinks he loves me so he's obviously far too pissed to drive, and secondly he has a little girl and she can't possibly see him like this. It would scare the shit out of her." Gene saw the sense in her argument, he knew from when he was a child how horrible it was to have a drunken parent returning home, especially when he was an angry drunken parent. He was almost certain that Evan wouldn't harm the Price's child but just to be certain it probably would be for the best if he did spend the night on Alex's sofa. Still one question remained.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Gene, wanting to know exactly what Alex had got planned.

"He'll have to stay at mine," said Alex beginning to formulate the start of a plan in her head

"Oh right," said Gene trying to hide the bitter disappointment in his voice. If he had known that was what it took to get into her flat then he would have drunkenly declared his love for her weeks ago. Seeing his obvious disappointment Alex decided it was time for her to reveal the next section of her plan.

"Whilst we go to his, and look after the Price's daughter," she knew that a nights babysitting wasn't exactly what they had had planned, but maybe if they were lucky they would be able to curl up together in an arm chair.

"Sounds like a plan Bolls," turning to face Evan he shouted "right you upstairs, or I'll arrest you for disturbance of the peace." Even a drunken Evan was sensible enough to do as Gene said and started to slowly stumble in a zigzag pattern towards the entrance of Luigi's.

"Exactly how many people do you arrest for that?" Alex joked; it was the second time that night that he had used that threat.

"Quite a few Bolls," he replied, realising that it had become something of a catchphrase. No doubt she would find some way to use it against him, probably when he was least expecting it.

"Bloody hell, how much has he had to drink?" commented Alex as Evan struggled to walk up the stairs, bashing into the walls on both sides.

"Poor sod, can't handle it," muttered Gene in Alex's ear as they slowly made their way up the stairs keeping a safe distance behind Evan should he fall down. The door was still open from when they had been entering the flat about fifteen minutes earlier.

"Right you put him to bed, and I'll write a note," ordered Alex, looking at Gene as she said so, trying to guess what his reaction would be.

"Put him to bed?" questioned Gene, what the hell was he supposed to do, fluff his pillows and tuck him in, kissing him on the forehead as he left? Who did she think he was?

"Well I'm not taking his clothes off him," she joked, knowing full well that Gene hadn't even been thinking of that, but now he most definitely would be.

"Too right you're not," muttered Gene as he guided Evan into the bathroom, he didn't want Bolly seeing this bloke in anything less than his usual suit and tie. "The only person that you're going to be undressing is me Bolls, and I don't think that that is going to happen tonight." Whilst Gene was trying to persuade Evan to remove his clothes Alex wrote a note, hoping that in the morning Evan would be sober enough to read it.

_Evan, _

_Me and DCI Hunt have gone over to yours to look after Alex, we'll tell her that you weren't feeling very well and so stayed at mine to prevent passing the bug onto her. We will drop her at school in the morning and tell her that you will collect her in the afternoon. When you're feeling better please lock up the flat and leave the keys with Luigi downstairs. _

_From_

_Alex._

As Alex pinned the note to her notice board, which she had long since emptied of the calendar and various newspaper clippings related to her parents death, Gene directed Evan towards the sofa, chucking the blue blanket onto him as he fell almost instantly into a drunken slumber.

"Right then Bolls, using my detective skills I have found out where that piece of scum lives," announced Gene holding up Evans wallet and not even attempting to hide his feelings towards the young lawyer.

"Off we go then," said Alex, equally as keen to get away from Evan and the reminders of what her and Gene could have been doing that night had they not bumped into Evan at the cinema. Gene walked over to the door and held it open for her whilst jangling his car keys.

"Ladies first," he said mockingly as she walked through the door that he held open, carrying a small holdall.

"What's in the bag Bolls?" Gene asked, his curiosity getting the better of him once again. Laughing she through it neatly at his chest before scampering back down the stairs once again. Unzipping it as he walked, Gene found it full of a neatly folded change of clothes for both of them. "Nice undies Drake," he whispered in her ear as she clambered into the Quattro.

As they roared off into the night, no doubt disturbing the neighbours once again Gene asked her the question that had been troubling him for a while, "What were you thinking back then?" It was usually the birds that asked this question he thought, just when they'd be getting cosy they'd say, _"what are you thinking?"_ to which he would usually reply back with some sarky comment about taking them back to his.

"When?" questioned Alex, unsure of exactly what Gene was getting at.

"Just after you told Evan to sober up," he prompted. Oh, thought Alex he must have noticed her lost in thought, whilst she was reliving a flashback from when she was a little girl.

"I was just remembering," she replied, knowing that that wouldn't be enough for Gene. He had a detectives mind and was always inquisitive, never happy unless he was sure that he had the full story.

"Remembering what?" he prompted he again, recognizing that she was just about to open up to him for about the second time that day. It seemed that their relationship had moved so quickly, the previous day they had been at each other's throat, but know they were sharing the deepest darkest secrets from their past.

"Well," revealed Alex, "after my parents died, my godfather looked after me, he's a lot like Evan, I guess that's why we became friends, but," she addd quickly "it could never be anything more than that. Any way not long after they died, he went out for the evening and came home drunk. I had to look after him, helping him to the bathroom all night."

Gene could relate to this story so well, but a flash of anger passed through him, imagining Bolls being hurt the way he had been by his father. "Did he hurt you?" he asked.

"No!" said Alex shocked that he could imagine Evan doing such a thing to her, "it just really scared me seeing him being ill, he was the one person that I had left in my life."

"Of course, I'm sorry Bolls." He realised his mistake almost instantly, she obviously looked up to her godfather and had forgiven him that one mistake long ago. Appreciating his apology she leant over and laid her head on his shoulder, delicately kissing his neck. They drove along like that in a companionable silence until they drove up a street in the suburbs of London and pulled up outside a painted white house with a small neatly trimmed front garden.

"This must be it," announecd Alex.


	8. Babysitting

_I am very proud of myself, two chapters in oned day. Sorry, this chapter is shorter than some of my more recent ones, hope you enjoy it though. Please read and review, critisism is appreciated._

Chapter Eight

"Here we are then, home of the posh and snobby," said Gene as they walked up to the front door, Alex's hand was entwined with his and she seemed nervous for some reason. He couldn't understand why, she had already told him that she had a daughter so this should come naturally to her, whereas he was well known for being terrible with children, he had an uncanny knack of making them burst into tears within just ten minutes of being with them.

"You really don't like him do you?" Alex had noticed Gene's hostility towards Evan, but she wasn't surprised, he had gotten Gene suspended, given her a lift home just after Gene had saved her life and ruined their date twice in one night.

"No I don't Bolls," replied Gene as he rang the doorbell. A young girl who could have been no more than fifteen answered the door. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked absolutely exhausted. "Is this the home of Mr White?" he asked, hoping that it was because he honestly couldn't be bothered to drive anywhere else. He usually prided himself on not getting tired but tonight he was, and would have given anything to be curled up in bed with Bolls right now, instead of standing on a cold windy doorstep at close to one in the morning.

"Yes, he does live here, but I'm just babysitting," she explained, looking worried as to why two people had come looking for the guy she knew as Evan.

"I'm DI Drake and this is DCI Hunt," explained Alex flashing her I.D. Card, seeing the worried look on the young girls face she began to reassure her, "we're not here on police business, don't worry. Mr White won't be returning home tonight, he didn't feel too well and we thought it best not to let the child see him, after what she's been through. So we'll look after her tonight, and you can get off home." The girl's anxious faces relaxed into a smile relieved that she could finally get home and go to sleep;

She stepped out of the door, grabbing her bag off the coat stand on her way out. Just before she left Gene handed her some notes from out of his wallet. "Ere you go love, can't expect you to go home about three hours later than planned and not have earnt anything from it can we?"

"Thanks," she smiled gratefully, Alex thought that this was probably more than double the amount that she would normally be paid.

Cautiously they stepped inside the house, feeling terribly out of place. "We should go up," said Alex, "she's probably awake." Treading lightly on the stairs they made their way up, one after the other. Instinctively she turned to the right, knowing that that was where they would find the little girls bedroom. Just as her hand touched the door Alex realised that this would be the first time that she had met her younger self. Surely it wouldn't change anything would it? It's not like the universe would implode, after all Sam had seen his younger self and nothing had happened. Slowly pushing the door open, it creaked partway as she knew it would, with one of Gene's hands on her waist they walked in.

Gene could sense Alex's nervousness, her shoulders were tense and he could understand why. Neither of them knew how the little girl would react to two strangers walking in to her bedroom instead of her godfather. They opened the door to find a small little girl, huddled amongst the covers, wide eyed looking up at them. "Hi Alex, it's the gene genie. Remember me?" He almost laughed at how ridiculous he must sound, creepy almost. But thankfully the little girl didn't see it that way.

"Hi, where's Evan?" She sounded so shy and timid thought Alex, then realising how she had distanced herself from the little girl, she no longer thought of them as the same person. In fact the Alex from 2007 and the Alex from 1981 were very different people.

"Evan's not feeling too well so he's stayed at my flat for tonight," explained Alex gently. Seeing the little girls eyes fill with tears she said, "Don't worry, he'll be O.K. it's just a bit of a tummy upset. He'll be back tomorrow to pick you up from school." She moved over to sit on the edge of the bed, letting the little girl change her position so that she could lay her head in her lap, she was so trusting thought Alex. Quietly Gene moved over to and perched behind Alex, breathing in the smell of her hair as she leant back against his chest.

They stayed in that position for what felt like hours, neither daring to speak for fear of waking the small child. After what seemed like hours Alex heard Gene whisper in her ear, "we should get some sleep."

"Mmn" murmured Alex, letting Gene move from behind her she gently slipped Alex's head from her lap. Walking from the room and down the stairs Alex let out a giggle at Gene's over exaggerated tiptoeing. Hearing her he turned around he put one finger on his lips he went "Sssh." However this only made Alex laugh even more. The house was in darkness so they ended up feeling their way through it in an attempt to find the main living room. Stumbling through a door, Alex suddenly stopped realising that she was now stood right next to the sofa, unaware that she had stopped Gene knocked into Alex, pushing them both over and onto the sofa so that he was lying on top of her. Feeling her heartbeat quicken and breathing intensify, they lay like that for what seemed like forever, neither of them daring to make the first move, scared of what would happen if Alex woke up and saw them.

"We should see if this has a bed underneath," said Alex, pushing Gene off her and feeling suddenly light headed as the spell between them was broken.

"Yeh," agreed Gene, "You do that and I'll see if I can find us a spare cover or something." He stumbled from the room, still unsure of his surroundings. As Alex pulled out the bed from underneath the sofa she could hear him opening various cupboards upstairs. By the time he came downstairs, she had stripped down to her underwear and was arranging some pillows on the bed. "Here we go Bolls. Bloody hell, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Dumping the various blankets on the bed, he crawled over it and placed his hands on her waist. Grabbing hold of his shirt Alex pulled him down onto the bed.

Alex awoke in the early hours of the morning, and turned over to lay a hand on Gene's chest, but her hand fell flat on the bed. Gene was gone.


	9. Nightmare

_(So here it is , chapter nine. Sorry about the delay but as I said, science revision, along with all of the other homework that teachers feel is appropriate to waste our time with. Hope to post chapter ten soon, I know exactly what is going to happen, I just have to write it.)_

Chapter Nine

Gene had woken up, dressed only in his underwear at about half past three in the morning, to a high pitched scream that shook him right to his core. He looked down at Alex who was still sleeping peacefully; he was almost entranced by the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Any other time and he could have sat and watched her for hours, but he had to find out where that scream had come from. His eyes flicked around the room, looking for a clue as to where he might be, suddenly remembering the night's events, he leapt out of bed and pulled on his trousers and shirt as, if it was the little girl then he doubted she would be reassured to see him dressed only in his boxers. Silently running up the stairs, he was surprisingly light on his feet when he needed to be, he saw the little girl sat bolt upright staring at something in the corner of her room. Quickly glancing he saw that there was nothing there, slowly he entered her bedroom not wanting to shock her, and sat on the edge of the bed as he and Alex had done a few hours before. Talking to her calmingly about birthdays, horses and all the things he thought little girls would like, whilst rubbing soothing circles on her back. Gradually the young girl, Alex Price started to relax into Gene's arms, it was just then that Gene looked up and saw Alex leaning on the door frame, she was smiling, obviously thinks that the Manc Lions gone soft thought Gene. "So the Manc Lions a pussy cat really," she teased.

"Nope not me love, I'm the Gene Genie," stated Gene. Secretly he didn't mind Alex seeing this side of him; he'd just have to make sure that no one at work found out, after all he had a reputation to keep. The whole police system would collapse if the criminal underworld heard that the Manc Lion had gone soft.

"Are you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" asked the young Alex coyly. If only things were that simple thought Alex, exchanging a look with Gene they smiled, both at the idea of them being together and the little girl's simplistic view of the world.

"Yes we are," clarified Alex, the little girls face broke into a smile, and she slowly drifted off to sleep once again. "Nightmare?" questioned Alex, as a young girl she had suffered from nightmares involving the death of her parents. Instead of a clown haunting her it had been that red balloon.

"Yeh, I think so," murmured Gene. Retreating down the stairs in silence, they got back into their makeshift bed pulling the covers back over them. Yawning, Alex rolled over so that she was facing Gene, their bodies pressed together. Wrapping his arms around her, Gene muttered, "Night Bolls."

"Night Gene," she replied, before raising her head slightly and kissing his lips tenderly.

They were woken by an alarm clock going off somewhere in the house, both trying to get up at the same time they fell back down, realising that their legs were entwined. "Now then, how did that happen?" Gene said chuckling.

"Well Mr. Hunt, I would love to remind you. But right now we have a little girl to get ready for school," Alex said, putting on a mock posh voice. However as she disentangled their legs, she swung hers over his body, so that for a second she was straddling him, before jumping out of bed and pulling on her jeans. "Now then, where is my top?" Gene reached down to the floor, and flung the top at her, it landing neatly on her head. "Thanks," she said, pulling the top off her head and sticking her tongue out at him. Pulling it over her head and adjusting it carefully so that one bra strap could be seen she walked out of the room to find where the alarm was.

As she reached the landing she saw the little girl's head poking around her bedroom door. "Hi Alex," she said. Do you think you could help me find this alarm?" The little girl nodded and taking her had lead her into Evan's bedroom, "Aha," cried Alex as she hit the alarm stopping the insecent beeping, making her younger self titter nervously. "So then, breakfast?" asked Alex, she had long since forgotten the morning routine that she and Evan had set up between them.

"Evan said that I should wash my hair this morning, that's why he set the alarm." The little girl seemed nervous as she spoke, unsure of how Alex would react to her correction.

"Of course," said Alex softly, "lets run you a bath then." As the little girl went to get her school clothes ready Alex sat on the edge of the bath, letting the water run through her fingertips, it's soothing sensation relaxing her. "Right then," she said as the young girl entered the bathroom, "you have a bath and wash your hair, and I'll go downstairs and make your lunch. I'll dry your hair for you after if you want."

"Thanks Alex," said the little girl as Alex left the room, and turned to walk down the stairs and into the kitchen, stopping briefly to throw a pillow at the now snoring Gene. Rifling through the kitchen cupboards she found various items of food, suitable for a packed lunch. As she finished preparing the sandwiches she flicked the kettle on, hoping that Gene would be able to function better after he drank a cup of strong black coffee.

Hearing, feet padding down the stairs Alex appeared, wrapped up in a dressing gown with sopping wet hair dripping onto the floor. "Alex, why don't we go and wake up DCI Hunt?" suggested Alex, a wicked thought entering her head. Shushing the little girl as they entered the living room she pointed for her to go to the over side of the room and mimed throwing a pillow at him. "On the count of three," whispered Alex. "One, two three"

Both of their pillows launched at Gene's face with surprising accuracy, "Oooof," exclaimed Gene. What the hell was that he thought, slowly opening his eyes wincing as the light hit them. Blinking rapidly he saw Bolls and Alex standing in separate corners of the room laughing at him, throwing both pillows back at them he got up and shrugged on his shirt, "coffee made yet Bolls?" bellowed Gene, as he walked into the kitchen. Stopping he poured the little girl a bowl of cereal and passed her the milk from the fridge. "There you go Luv," he said, more softly this time.

"Right then eat up Alex, and then I'll dry your hair." Announced Alex, hunting through the cupboards for the sugar, she had never had sugar in her coffee back home, she had been watching her figure then but here it seemed that she ate so little that she needed the sugar to keep her going.

"Top shelf Bolls," muttered Gene, reaching up to the shelf above her, their bodies pressing together a he did it. Automatically her hands slithered down to his bum, then realising where they were, she let go as if she had just had an electric shock. Laughing Gene lifted down the sugar pot, brushing his hands against her breasts as he came down, making the little girl giggle at the intimacy between the couple.

About half an hour later they were finally ready to go, driving off in the Quattro Gene sat Alex in the back and helped her with the seatbelt, pushing the seats back he helped Bolly in and muttered "not you Bolls, you're still a police officer." Pulling up outside Luigi's they walked inside to collect their police I.D. which Gene had left to dry and forgotten about in the rush. Gene walked into the restaurant first, and walked behind the bar to find the keys to Alex's flat. Just then Alex entered holding the little girls hand, and led them both upstairs to her flat, feeling safer now that they were certain that Evan wouldn't be there. Squeezing back against the wall to let Gene past she felt their bodies touch, only for a fleeting second but it reminded her of just how she felt about him.

Opening the door they walked in and Gene started to gather up the various pieces of documentation that were scattered around the radiators in her flat. Looking briefly at the notice board Alex said, "Gene, there's a note."


	10. Paranoia

_(Chapter Ten, sooo let me know what you think, and provide me with a distraction from any coursework of revision that I may be doing.)_

Chapter Ten

Her eyes scanned the note quickly, aware of both Gene's and the girl's eyes upon her, as she finished the note she began to smile, "just a note from Evan to say that he's feeling much better and will see you after school," she reported to the little girl, and then turned to smile at Gene letting him know that although she hadn't given Alex the entire truth it wasn't far off. Having gathered up the remaining paperwork Alex dumped her clothes bag on her bed and opened the door to leave allowing the little girl to leave first, and grinning as she skipped down the stairs whilst singing " Jean genie lives on his back, the jean genie loves chimney stacks."

Gene paused at the door and said to Alex, "so what did the note say then?" he had been overcome with curiosity and unable to wait until they had dropped Alex off at school he took his chance to find out.

"It just said what I told her," she replied "Oh and that he won't tell anyone about us," the thought that Evan could reveal their secret hadn't even crossed her mind but now she felt relieved. She and Gene hadn't discussed when they would tell their colleagues about their relationship, but it definitely wouldn't go down well if Evan told them.

"Nice bloke," muttered Gene sarcastically, as he turned and walked down the stairs. He didn't feel that he owed the man any gratitude simply for him promising not to blackmail them. Unlocking the Quattro once more they set off towards the school. Evan had been uncertain as to whether or not to change Alex's school, it was the one constant left in her life apart from him, but she would also have to pass the place where he parents died every day. His final decision had been to leave her there but drive the alternative and longer route there. Gene also realising this drove to the school from the opposite direction to that which they had done on that fateful day. Pulling up outside the school Gene got out of the car and pulled the seat forward to allow Alex out. Lifting her up he placed her down carefully on the ground and warmly ruffled her hair, then he got the shock of his life as she through her arms around his waist giving him a surprisingly strong hug. Then moving on to Alex, who bent down and hugged the little girl lovingly, before sending her into school as the bell rang for the start of the day.

Watching the small child run into school Alex and Gene leant against the car trying to prolong the time they had before they would have to return to the Met. "Right then Bolls, we'd better be off," he said interrupting the silence that had settled over them.

"Yeh, I suppose," she mused, turning to walk around the car, pecking Gene on the lips before clambering in beside him, and laughing as the Quattro roared off and towards the centre of London.

Striding into the office, taking care to enter with a few feet between them Gene flung open the double doors to see the rest of the team hard at work, which was a rarity for them. "Christ," muttered Gene into Alex's ear "what have those scumbag criminals done that's so bad that my team is actually working?" Throwing his coat onto the back of the chair he shouted to announce his arrival, "Right then! Fill me in!"

"Shouldn't that be fill us in?" argued Alex? She realised that he was just trying not to treat her too differently in front of the others and so decided that she could also do her bit by arguing with him as she always did.

Ray strode towards them and shoved a file full of witness statements and photographs of a mutilated corpse in front of them, "Blimey Ray," muttered Gene, "Good job I didn't have any breakfast!"

" Thirty two year old woman, found dead in the garden of her home by her sister after she failed to meet her for lunch in a local restaurant. The husband has disappeared for the moment, but the sister said that he was a bit of a strange bloke who tended to over react if the smallest thing went wrong." Ray paused as if looking back trying to think of any other details that he had missed off, "Oh and she was pregnant," he added.

Already Alex was beginning to build up a psychological profile of the husband, trying to work out his whereabouts, she was gradually beginning to piece together the important factors in his life. Which would obviously be...? "The park!" she exclaimed.

"What are you on about, Bollinger knickers?" questioned Gene, honestly he thought, she came out with the daftest comments.

"No think about it, he's just lost his wife and child, so he'll go to the place where they would have gone. The park." She explained, it seemed to make sense to Gene but one thing puzzled him about Alex's theory.

"But that would mean that he knew that his wife was dead?" he questioned, unsure of what Alex was trying to get at.

"Of course he knows his wife is dead," she affirmed. "He killed her." With that she walked out through the doors that her and Gene had come through only a few minutes earlier, leaving the rest of the team in shock, confused at how simple psycology could find them a murderer.

"Right then, lets fire up the Quattro," exclaimed Gene. He was willing to accept Alex's idea for now, but if it all went balls up then she would be to blame. Stalking out of the office after her he was closely followed by Chris and Ray who had still not realised that the Guv and Alex had arrived together, and they call themselves bloody detectives thought Gene. Exiting the building they found Alex leant against the Quattro, "Christ" he muttered again for the second time that morning.

"What Guv," questioned Ray looking round to see what had shocked his DCI. Gene's eyes flicked to Ray and he swore under his breath realising that he had in fact said that out loud.

"Nothing," he said, not wanting to tell Ray that he had once again been shocked by Alex's beauty and of course the size of her breasts. "Get in the car you puffs, and let's give Bolly's idea spin." Alex neatly stepped aside to allow Chris and Ray to clamber into the back seat before getting in herself, receiving a quick slap on the arse from Gene as he walked past her and round to the driver's side. There was silence as they drove to the park, neither Gene nor Alex daring to say anything for fear of somehow giving away what really happened last night.

The sun was shimmering on the water of the duck pond in the park but clouds had started to gather trying to block the sun's rays. They could see a middle aged man who couldn't have been more than 35 years old, sat on a park bench. He looked dishevelled; although he was smartly dressed in a suit it looked worn and faded. With one look Alex knew that he had done it, Gene could tell that she had a hunch and decided to let her take the lead, "right then Bolls go and work you magic," having said it he instantly regretted his words, fearing that they gave too much away. Ray and Chris however didn't notice any difference to them the Guv was just teasing Alex as he always did.

"Be careful," he added as an afterthought realising that he was sending her to meet the one suspect so far in their investigation. He desperately wanted to lean across and kiss her, let her know how he really felt, that he wasn't just in it for the sex, any way if he was then they wouldn't be together any more seeing as Evan had scuppered all of their plans.

"Walk me to the gate?" asked Alex in a sickly sweet tone, trying to make it sound as if she was mocking him but the look in her eyes said differently. Needing no further invitation Gene walked with her towards the park, their strides perfectly matched. The path was lined with trees and when they neared the entrance, Alex quickly pushed Gene behind one. Quickly spinning her round Gene pushed his DI up against the tree, and his lips crashed on to hers, as the kiss got more and more intense, Gene broke away, annoying Alex immensely as she tried to pull him back down.

"Be careful," Gene muttered as he gave Alex one final kiss, before pushing her away towards the park. Watching her walk away his heart began to ache. Alex felt confident as she walked away, Gene's obvious care for her had given her the strength to continue with her plan. It would be dangerous she knew, pushing a man to the very edge in order to gather evidence, which couldn't even be used in court.

As she drew closer to the bench she coughed slightly to get his attention, drawing out her warrant card she said softly not wanting to scare him "Hi Steve, I'm DI Alex Drake, do you want to take a walk?" The man didn't speak but he got up and walked with Alex, along through the trees. "So you and your wife were going to be parents?"

"Yeh, our baby he replied. It would have been gorgeous," as he spoke a single tear rolled down his cheek. This shocked Alex to the core; it wasn't often here that they saw a more sensitive side to criminals. They continued to chat pleasantly about how Steve and his wife met, and their relationship throughout the years. Something that Alex thought was odd was how Steve never mentioned anyone else, not even his wife's sister. "So did your wife have any other friends," she asked. As soon as he heard her his expression changed and a dark look flashed across his eyes, they had walked round the park and arrived back at the duck pond that Alex had seen earlier. Snapping around to face her he walked towards her, backing away Alex walked down the small hill leading to the pond. Pushing him further she asked "did she ever go out with these friends Steve?" For him it was the last straw, putting his hands on her shoulders he forced her backwards into the water.

The water slowly covered Alex's body, soaking her clothes as she began to sink. As the water bound her body preventing her limbs from moving, she blew out the last air left in her lungs, and heard a voice saying softly "goodbye mum, be happy."


	11. Molly a decision

_(OK, so this is a very short chapter, but was needed for the story to make sense, well as much sense as Ashes to Ashes ever does. Any way incase it's unclear this is set in 2008. Thanks for all the reviews they are what keep me writing, so if you want more keep reviewing and if you don't then review and let me know how I can improve.)_

Discalimer: The disclaimers are the same for every chapter and so just assume that this one continues throughout the rest of this fanfiction. I own none of the characters or anything else in this fanfiction if it belongs to someone else. I am making no profit from this story.

* * *

Chapter Ten

It was a sunny morning and Molly was making her daily pilgrimage to visit her mum in hospital. As always Evan drove her there in his car and they sat and talked by her bedside, but today was different and only Molly new that, well someone else knew as well but that was something she didn't understand. It had been a few weeks ago that Molly had held her mother's hand whilst the doctors carried out yet more to access how her brain was functioning, and yet again the tests had been inconclusive. But other conclusions had been found that day, as the tears had slowly trickled down Molly's face and she gripped her mum's hand tighter she had found a screwed up piece of paper that she was certain hadn't been there the previous day. Gently prising her mum's fingers apart she had found a torn of piece of napkin from a restaurant called Luigi's, but on the back had been the saddest and happiest song that she had ever read.

'_I'll keep on dreaming until my dreams come true  
Until these arms of mine surround you all the time  
I'll keep on dreaming until my dreams come true  
Until your heart can see what burns inside of me  
I'll keep on dreaming until my dreams come true  
Every day I cry a lonely tear a tear of love especially just for you  
Until my fantasy becomes reality I'll keep on dreaming until my dreams come true'_

But it was the note at the bottom that made the words make sense to Molly, _when Sam Tyler died in his old reality, he lived in his old fantasy and new reality. _As soon as she read this Molly had started to make connections, just as it appeared her mum had done. To her the note meant that wherever her mum was seemed real, and that because of that she never wanted to wake up even though she missed her.

Running up to the nurse's station Molly had asked who had been to visit her mum in the past day; the answer confused her even more when they said that the only other visitor apart from her and Evan had been a psychologist called Molly Hunt.

As her and Evan had walked through the maze of the hospital corridors towards reception Molly repeated that name over and over again. "Hunt," she mused, "Hunt."

"What did you say Molls?" questioned Evan, who had become puzzled by his goddaughters strange behaviour.

"Have you heard the name Hunt anywhere before?" asked Molly, doubting that Evan would be able to help her work out this puzzle and didn't want to tell him why she had come to hear the name, fearing that he would begin to fear for her sanity, he already had enough to worry about.

"Hunt," he repeated, "more to himself than to Molly, "I've not heard that name in years," he said, "1981, Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt in the Metropolitan Police."

Upon hearing this Molly's brain began working over time, he must be the same Gene Hunt that was mentioned in Sam Tyler's file. As soon as she had gotten home she had typed Gene Hunt into an internet search engine and was met with just the one hit, which took her to a very simple website detailing his career up to his retirement in 1990. But the thing that interested her most where the pictures, "mum" she whispered, "Evan," then in wonderment she focused in on one picture "is that me?" Neither her or her mum had seemed to be any younger, but Evan looked nearly 30 years younger.

It had taken her weeks and weeks to come to where she was now, she knew that whatever happened Evan couldn't know. He wouldn't understand and would instantly assume that someone had been playing tricks on her, but Molly knew it was the truth. That shine of life had disappeared from her mum's eyes after just a few days of her being in the coma, no one else had seen it but she had. From the song and information that she had gathered she was fairly certain that in order for her mum to survive she had to die, but it was the next part of her plan that only the photo had suggested would work.

Evan had gone to an emergency at work, promising that he would be back to pick her up in a few hours, but Molly hope he would never come as it would break his heart. Placing the note that she had written on the bedside table she leant across and flicked the switch on Alex's life support machine, effectively ending her life. Holding her mums hand she imagined and hoped and prayed, before whispering "goodbye mum, be happy."


	12. Saving Alex

_(Right then chapter twelve, we're back in 1981 now with Gene and Alex. Thank you for all of the encouraging reviews please keep them coming as its nice to know that people actually like my ramblings based on an obsession for Ashes to Ashes that probably isn't healthy. So I'll shut up now and let you read it.)_

Chapter Twelve

Gene had been watching Alex carefully from the car whilst Chris and Ray sat in the back, he didn't even know what they had been joking about, he had been too busy concentrating on Bolls. As he saw Steve getting more and more agitated he placed his hand on the door handle ready to jump out if Alex needed him. So when Steve pushed her the first time he was already running up the path, and as Alex fell backwards into the water Gene had just arrived and immediately cuffed Steve, pushing him against the park bench. By the time he glanced down at the water the ripples had almost stilled, and there were no bubbles rising to the top. Tearing off his coat and shoes without thinking he dived into the lake, his arms and legs searching for Alex. Unable to see through the murky water he was relying entirely on touch.

As the darkness closed in on her, Alex began to panic. Why had Molly said goodbye to her? Was she dying? Where was Gene? The white clown appeared in the corner of her eye, "I'm going to get him Alex," it said "the one person who you have left." Desperately Alex spun round, trying to see the clown in full view.

"No... Not Gene," she tried to shout, but ended up swallowing the water. Desperately trying to cough she ended up chocking. Trying to wriggle free of the invisible ropes that bound her, she felt her legs go numb and tears began to run down her face, mixing with the cloudy water surrounding her. Suddenly feeling a strong hand grasp her arm, she kicked, desperately trying to get rid of the clown that haunted her.

Gene felt his hand brush against her arm, and grabbed it, trying to pull Alex towards him. He could tell that she was scared as she struggled against his hand. Refusing to give in he waved his other arm around searching for her waist. Clamping his hand on it, he dragged her weighted body to the surface. Bursting through into the air, his eyes stung as he tried to see where the edge of the pond was. Positioning Alex's body as far on the bank as he could, he lifted himself up and bent over her body. As she coughed, the life flooded back into her and her eyes slowly fluttered open as if she was coming round from a long sleep. "I couldn't get back" she said helplessly. Meaning back to Molly, though Gene took it to mean that she couldn't swim back to the surface.

"I know luv... I'm here, don't worry." He whispered as he cradled her head in his lap. Meanwhile Ray and Chris had finally realised what was happening and were bundling Steve into the boot of the Quattro. Shifting into a sitting position she gazed up into his eyes intently, once again she saw his love for her reflected in them and new that no matter what, Molly would want her to be happy. Lifting her mouth to his she kissed him, he responded kissing her back slowly and tenderly, tracing his fingers down her damp wet clothes. Softly breaking apart, Gene got up and picked his coat up of the grass, wrapping it around Alex's shoulders and escorting her to the car. "Where've you put that bastard?" shouted Gene to Chris and Ray as he and Alex drew nearer the car. He was keen not to put Alex in any more danger having nearly lost her once already that day.

Driving back to the station there was silence in the car, interrupted only by the odd banging coming from the boot. Gene glanced over to see Alex shivering in the corner of her seat, covered in his jacket which didn't appear to be doing much to warm her up. "Right then you pair of puffs, you bang up that scumbag nonce in the back whilst I take Bollinger Knickers here home to get dried off."

"Get her knickers off morel like," Ray muttered to Chris, but not quite quiet enough to escape Gene's hearing.

"Oy you, have some respect for you senior officer!" he yelled, causing Chris to yelp in surprise at the Guv's harsh tones.

"Struck a nerve there mate," whispered Chris, still not quiet enough.

"Will you two prats shut, or you can get out and walk," yelled Gene again, as he twisted round in his seat to glare at his two junior officers, whilst wondering if they were just being their usual annoying selves or if they had seen his and Bolls affectionate display by the duck pond.

Pulling up outside the station, Gene clambered out of his seat to let Ray and Chris out of the car, and opened the boot to heave the now sobbing bloke out, and stand him up on the pavement. Then slamming the door as he got back in they roared off towards Alex's flat, looking back he saw the bemused expressions on Chris and Ray's faces as the sauntered up the stairs and back to work, but he doubted that they would get much done.

"Did they see us," whispered Alex. She had sat their silently taking in the apparent hostilities between the three men, however she understood that he needed to vent his anger somehow and was grateful that he hadn't chosen to do that on the suspect.

"No, they can't have done," he replied, hoping and praying that he was right. "Don't ever do that again to me Bolls," he said affectionately. She didn't know how he had felt when he saw her body falling into the pond, they had only been together for one day, and that wasn't official, but already he couldn't imagine his life without her.

Alex thought she knew how he felt; she had after all experienced similar feelings when Arthur Layton had taken Molly hostage. Leaning over the hand brake she rested her head in the crook of Gene's arm, taking in his scent, cigarettes, whisky and now the faint smell of damp. Still it comforted her and she found herself happily day dreaming of her, Gene and Molly whilst he drove.

Parking outside Luigi's Gene walked round to Alex's door and said "Right then Drake, let's get those knickers off you," Ray was probably closer to the truth than the thought, thought Gene as he slipped his hands underneath her and effortlessly picked her up, pulling his coat tight around her body he walked up the stairs leading to her flat. He carried her all the way to the bathtub, before carefully stripping her clothes off and throwing them into a heap on the floor, closely followed by his. They sat in the bath tub together letting the water slowly heat up their bodies.

Finally they dragged themselves out of the bath, when they realised that the water had turned cold and wasn't exactly the prevention of hypothermia which it was supposed to be. Gene began to roughly towel himself dry whilst Alex sat on the edge of the bath tub watching him, that coy smile playing on her lips as she thought through what they had just done. "Right then Bolls back to work," he growled.

"You really know to spoil a moment don't you Gene," she purred, walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him back down into the bath tub.

It was a few hours later, and Gene was leant against the counter in the kitchen, drinking a cup of strong black coffee in an attempt to wake himself up. Alex was stood inside her bedroom, putting on her bright blue eye shadow with such precision that any one would think she was painting a masterpiece, but she already is a masterpiece thought Gene.

He was interrupted by a shrill ringing sound, coming from the ridiculous red telephone that Alex kept by the door, "Gene can you get that?" yelled Alex. Jeeez thought Gene, at what stage in a relationship do you usually start answering other people's phones? Mind you it was probably just Ray or Chris ringing to say that they'd cocked something up majorly and were up sht creek without a paddle, or disinfectant.

"Hello, this is DI Drake's residence," he said putting on a mocking posh voice just in case it was one of her upper class friends who she wouldn't want to be embarrassed in front of by a northern flat foot such as himself. As he stood listening, his face became more and more bemused, so much so that when Alex walked into the room she couldn't help but giggle at the confused expression that he was wearing. Hanging up the phone saying "yes sure she'll be right there," he turned around to face her and said, "Some woman on the phone. She says can you go and pick up your daughter from school as you're already 15minutes late."


	13. A suprise vistor

_So here it is chapter thirteen, part of which was written on the edge near my house whilst it was raining, so my paper go all smudged and the ink ran, took me about 20minutes to work out what it actually said when I was typing it up. So I hear you ask, what was I doing on an edge in the rain, answer escaping from the revision and business studies. I'll shut up now and let you read the next installment from my rambling obsessive mind. Please read and review._

Chapter Thirteen

"Molly," whispered Alex faintly, hardly able to believe it. Surely her daughter couldn't be here, she had said goodbye to her. How had Molly got here? She hadn't been in an accident had she? No, surely not thought Alex, they couldn't both be here at the same time, unless it was real. It certainly seemed real; Gene was real, what she had with Gene real. Wasn't it?

"Why the hell didn't you tell me your daughter was coming?" yelled Gene, furious that she hadn't told him about something this important. "So, what was I, just a fling to pass the time until your daughter arrived? Well next time just pick a Thatcherite Wanker to do the babysitting with, because I am not doing this again." He couldn't understand why Alex hadn't told him that her daughter was coming; she was all that Alex could talk about for the first few weeks of her transfer, complaining about how she needed to get home to see her.

Alex knew how it must look in Gene's eyes, she hadn't told him that her daughter was coming to visit, after all it would have a major impact on their relationship. If they even had a relationship, she doubted that Gene would want to be with her now that her daughter came as part of the package, she was sure that Molly would love Gene, he was funny , caring and though he may not be a perfect father figure she would still look up to him. Yet none of that mattered if Gene didn't want anything to do with her. Was this Gene's way of finishing their relationship? She felt anger rush through her, he hadn't even asked her for her side of the story, he just rushed straight on in there with the accusations. "No Gene, I didn't know that she was coming!" she yelled, unable to control her fiery temper "And, if you're willing to give up at the first hurdle that we come to then maybe." She paused "maybe it's a good job that we finish here."

Finish, Gene thought, finish. They had barely even started, where had all that romance and passion gone that they had had a few moments ago. Had he said that he wanted to finish things with her? Sht he had, well not in so many words, but it had sounded like it. "Finish, who said that we were finishing?" he asked, now knowing that he had, but he hadn't meant it, they both just had very hot tempers so their arguments tended to spiral out of control. "And this," he emphasised, "is definitely not our first hurdle, what about that bloody Evan bloke, and Chris, and the Lake?"

Looking back over the past two days, Alex laughed, they had had an awful lot of obstacles put in their way, and this probably wasn't even the biggest one. Her near death experience could have spelt the end of their relationship once and for all. "Sorry" she muttered, staring down at the floor, her cheeks flushing a gentle red with her embarrassment at how she flew of the handle like that.

"Don't worry about it Bolls," murmured Gene as he calmed down, taking deep breaths. Cupping her chin with his hand he raised her face so that he could kiss her briefly on the lips, "besides, makes a change to have an argument after sex, rather than a cup of tea." Happy that their argument had now been resolved, Gene thought that they really ought to get moving and find out what the hell Alex's daughter was doing here, when Alex didn't know anything about it. "Come on then Bolls, let's fire up the Quattro."

Those words made Alex happier than Gene could ever know, right now she didn't care if he was an imaginary construct or as real as she was, everything was (as her dad used to say) coming up roses. Molly was back, she still had Gene and he wanted to pick Molly up with her. As she stepped through the door she turned to say "Who actually drinks tea after sex anyway?" laughing at his shocked expression as he tried to comprehend that she had never done it.

"I'll have to introduce you to it then Bolls," he joked, "Anyway which school are we going to then?" he asked realising that he didn't even know where he was supposed to be driving to.

"I don't know" she admitted, it only just crossed her mind that she didn't actually know where Molly was, she wouldn't be at Alex's old school. Maybe the school she went to was here, she mused. Well it was worth a shot she thought. "Why didn't you ask them?" she said looking at Gene as he pulled on his drivers gloves.

He looked at her, and laughed, "so what was I supposed to say, of course DI Drake will be right over to pick up her daughter, oh you couldn't tell us which school she actually goes to could you, her mum didn't even know that she was coming."

Alex giggled realising how silly their situation actually was, "we'd best try St Stevens then," she suggested, hoping that Gene wouldn't ask why as she didn't fancy explaining to him that that was the school that her futuristic self had chosen for her daughter.

Of course he did ask though, "Why," he questioned as he slipped the car into gear and set off in the direction of the school, screeching around the corners like there was no tomorrow.

As he braked suddenly to prevent the death of a lollypop lady and several school children, it gave Alex the chance to speak, "call it a coppers hunch," she said, adding "when Molly's in the car you will drive a bit more carefully won't you?"

Visibly softening, he slowed his speed down slightly and said "course I will, don't want to set her a bad example now do I?"

As they drove to the school a whirlwind of emotions swept through Alex, she was immensely happy as it seemed like her life in this dream world was finally on track. She was hopeful that her, Gene and Molly could become a family, they would undoubtedly be a dysfunctional family there was no doubt about that, but they would be a family, her family. She was scared, how had Molly gotten here? Had she put herself in danger? Had Layton got her? She was nervous, what would Molly think of Gene and her relationship with him, would she think that Alex had given up on getting back home to her, and had replaced her with Gene, because in a way Alex thought, she had.

Arriving outside the school, they parked opposite the school gate and saw a lone figure stood inside the school gates, her grey school uniform looking smart with her long brown hair forming gentle waves around her face. She was gazing expectantly at the car, trying to see the occupants within it. Alex sat rooted to her seat, this was the moment that she had dreamed of and yet now it was here she was too scared to move, scared that if she blinked then Molly would disappear just like the other times. Sensing her nervousness Gene prompted her "go on Alex, its Molly," he said gently, whilst leaning across her to open the door. That gave her the push that she needed, and stepping out of the car she held her arms wide open for Molly to run into them.

Gene sat in the car smiling as he saw Alex and Molly embrace and laughed as they began to chat rapidly, neither listening to the other one. "Molly, how did you get..."

"I found a..."

"Did Layton do..."

"Then I went on the"

"Was I in a..."

"Then I found a..."

Slowly getting out of the car, Gene felt that it was time for them to get going as Alex and Molly obviously had a lot to talk about. Shutting the door to announce his arrival, he strode round to see them, "right then you two chatterboxes, how about I lend you the car, and I head back off to the station." The only recognition that he got, was a smile from Molly as she looked up at him, recognising him instantly. Alex was chattering on about what seemed to be nonsense to him, but Molly seemed to understand.

Molly nudged Alex, reminding her that Gene was still there, looking up at him she kissed him briefly on the cheek and he passed her the keys to the Quattro, reluctantly letting go of her hand as she pocketed the keys. It was something that he would never have dreamt of doing, handing a girl the keys to HIS car.

"See you later Molls," he said softly, before turning and walking away, hoping that it wasn't too far to the station as he didn't really have a clue where he was. Looking back he saw Molly and Alex chatting avidly again, without even the slightest glance in his direction.


	14. Making up

_Sorry this chapter is a bit small as I realised that I hadn't posted on here for a while so I cut a chapter in half. Revision is kicking in majorly now and I don't seem to have enough time for anything else. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes as I was editing it and it wents a bit funny, and I may have missed some mistakes out the first time._

Chapter Fourteen

As Gene walked away, Alex continued chatting to Molly avidly, firing questions at her without giving her anytime time to answer them. Molly was very much aware of how left out Gene must feel, and also that her mum hadn't notice how she had dismissed him so easily. "Mum," she said, trying to interrupt her, "Mum," she shouted, causing Alex to look at her, and stop talking for long enough to listen to what she had to say. "Why are you just letting him walk away? He obviously likes you, and I think you like him."

Hearing these words Alex turned to see Gene waking away, his figure was unusually slumped as he meandered lazily through the park seemingly lost in thought and in no hurry to return the Met. Just seeing him like that made her heart flip over as she realised what she had done, she had been so caught up with Molly's appearance that she had ignored Gene's attentions. Another quick glance at Molly told her that no matter what her daughter would support her decision. "Thanks Molls," she whispered before turning and running after Gene.

Her long slim legs should have carried her quite quickly to where Gene was, but as she was running her in heeled boots, it slowed down her running pace considerably. She thought that Gene would have noticed her by now, but it seemed that he hadn't, either that or he was ignoring her and she wouldn't blame him for that. "Gene," she shouted, seeing his head turn slightly but then think better of it and he quickened his walking pace she shouted louder "Gene!" forgetting all of her inhibitions and fears of receiving strange looks from the few people in the gardens. As he turned round to face he she manage to catch up with him, his face was firmly set in a pout, but his eyes seemed to light up with hope as he saw her walking towards him. Reaching him Alex threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a passionate and loving embrace, not caring that Molly was probably stood by the car watching, or that the old couple sat on the park bench were probably muttering about the youth of today. None of that mattered anymore, she had Gene and she had Molly, and she wasn't going to be so stupid as to let either of them. Finally breaking from the kiss, as the old couple left the gardens in disgust, she said "Luigi's, this evening?" giving him the chance to excuse himself or to accept her invitation of a night with her and Molly.

A smile slowly spread across his face, realising that Alex did still want him, "of course, I might even buy the first round!" he said with a laugh, before kissing her softly on the cheek and watching her walk back towards Molly, grinning as she turned back to wave in his direction. "And be careful," he shouted "I don't want any scratches on that car when you get back!"

When Alex reached where Molly was stood, next to the Quattro she turned round but saw Gene's retreating back, only now there was a slight spring in his step, if it was possible for the Gene Genie to spring. "Where to?" she asked Molly, as she unlocked the car door, and sat in Gene's seat taking in the smell of cigarettes and whisky, that clung to the fabric.

"Ice cream," stated Molly. Reminding Alex of their previous life back home, every Saturday her and Molly would go to the local ice cream parlour, and Molly would have the biggest chocolate sundae that they had on offer, including the cream, marshmallows and extra chocolate sauce, whilst Alex would have an espresso or perhaps a skinny latte if it was a special occasion.

Slipping the car into gear, Alex resisted the urge to madly accelerate which seemed to have hit her the moment that she sat in the driver's seat. "Ice cream it is then," said Alex, as they steadily drove through the quiet streets of London. Neither of them spoke whilst they drove, Molly sat in the passenger's seat gazing intently out of the window, trying to take in everything that this new world had to offer. Alex meanwhile was dreaming of what the future had to hold, Molly's birthday, her, Gene and Molly's first Christmas. Of course she didn't think that it would all be easy, even after their first day in a relationship her and Gene had overcome more obstacles than she had faced in 5years of marriage to Molly's father.

They arrived outside a small corner shop called 'Betty's ice cream parlour,' It was painted white, but parts of the paint were pealing of to reveal the previous bottle green colour which the shop had been previously painted with. "It's changed a bit," commented Alex as she removed the keys from the ignition, and stepped out of the car. "What'll it be then, Chocolate Sundae with extra marshmallows?"

Smiling, Molly took her mother's hand as they walked through the brown wooden door, "of course," she said. Their arrival was announced by a tinkling bell which rang when the door opened, a fairly young women stood behind the counter, but already she was showing signs of having eaten too much ice cream. She should see herself in another 27years thought Alex, remembering the tubby old woman that she knew as the owner of this ice cream parlour.

Sitting down in the booth on the plastic pink seats, Alex laughed as the woman slid Molly's big chocolate sundae in front of her, "looks like the portions are smaller in 2008," muttered Alex, getting a confused and worried look from the woman as she walked back to the counter. "Oops," laughed Alex, realising that once again she had made a comment about the future in front of someone else. As Molly began to tuck into her chocolate coated ice cream, Alex began to order the questions that she wanted to ask in her mind. But they all seemed to be linked to one main question, "so how did you get her then Molls?"

Molly had been planning her answer long before she turned off her mother's life support machine, "Well you see I was at the hospital..."

"Had you been hurt" Alex asked interrupting her, "did Layton get you?"

Molly was almost amused at her mother's apparent panic, "no mum, I was visiting you..."

"Oh, Sorry" she said, realising that she was in fact hindering the process

"Anyway," said Molly in mock exasperation, "I found this napkin in your hand, and there was this song written on it..."

"What song?" interrupted Alex, again.

"MUM!!..." cried Molly, who then paused and ate another spoon of her ice cream, "well it was a bit wordy, and went on a bit. But there was this one line 'Every day I cry a lonely tear a tear of love especially just for you, Until my fantasy becomes reality I'll keep on dreaming until my dreams come true'"

Letting the words sink in, Alex realised what Molly had thought, "Oh Molls," she said, almost bursting into tears at what her baby girl had gone through just get here to her.

"Then the nurse said that the only person to have visited was a psychologist called Molly Hunt," revealed Molly, only to be interrupted by Alex yet again, who seemed to be very big on stating the obvious.

"But... but that's you... and Gene" she stuttered, becoming even more confused by their situation as their conversation developed.

This would be the hardest part Molly knew, "I was confused as well at first, but then I found this picture..."

"What picture?" Alex just couldn't help herself she wanted to know everything and understand how her subconscious had constructed this world, if it really had.


	15. Chatting over Icecream

_Another quite short chapter, am doing these in two parts so Gene's chapter will be next. Sorry its been slow coming up, but my test is on tuesday so they should be quicker after that. Hope you enjoy it and please continue to read and review._

Chapter 15

"Oh," muttered Molly, fully knowing the dramatic implications that her secret could bring, she wasn't terribly experienced in time travel but from just watching television she knew of the dangers of changing what happens in the past. If her mum knew what the photo was of then she would probably run away like she always had done when things got too serious, and thought Molly, then she would never see the picture and come here.

"What picture Molls?" asked Alex, putting on her serious mother's voice that she only ever used when she was either angry with Molly or felt that she was withholding information.

"Sorry mum but..." Molly suddenly became extremely interested in her ice cream, which had now started to melt and was slowly dribbling down the side of the sundae glass. "I can't tell you. You see it's just that... Well... It might change how...well you might..." she quietly tailed off and raised her head so that their eyes met across the table.

Alex's eyes were glistening with water as she tried not to show Molly how all of this was affecting her, she felt terrible knowing what she had made her daughter go through. "Don't worry about it Molls," she reassured her, having her utmost faith that Molly would have told her if she could. An awkward silence settled over them, causing Alex to look anxiously towards the counter praying that her latte would be brought over soon. As if her prayers had been answered the young lady sauntered slowly towards them, carefully balancing Alex's skinny latte, biting her lips nervously as the latte sloshed over the sides of the glass. She placed it gently on the table with concern written all over her face, attempting to stop her worries Alex flashed her a brief smile before taking a brief sip of the lukewarm drink. "So then Molls" she said, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "how did you get here?"

Ok, thought Molly that was the million dollar question. This was the speech that she had been planning since she had first realised what she must do, yet now the time had come she had absolutely no idea what to say. "I turned it off mum," she whispered. Then seeing the love still there in her mother's eyes she said "I turned off your life support machine."

"Oh Molls," murmured Alex, unable to comprehend how her daughter must have been feeling when she did it, sometimes the not knowing was the hardest part, that was one of the many things which she had learnt from the time that she had spent apart from Molly. "But then... you came here?" she said it in a questioning tone, though it was quite obvious that that was what had happened.

"Yeh, I was sat in the hospital holding your hand, and well I thought that it might happen, but then I woke up in a classroom here with an uptight woman yelling at me for falling asleep in class." Revealed Molly, only now realising that she didn't actually know how any of this worked.

Alex however was starting to make connections, "so..." she mused," "It appears that as well as bringing memories into this 'dystopia' upon death, if the belief from both party's is strong enough then people can also be transported."

Feeding directly off her mother's musings Molly added "and as you both believed in me and your love for Gene, instead of you coming to 2008 I came here to... to?" Suddenly Molly realised that she didn't actually know what year it was, she knew when the photograph had been taken, that was 1982 but she didn't know how much time had passed between now and then.

"1981," replied Alex, seeing the shock flash upon Molly's face she added "what? Then as if she was reading Molly's mind she said "Don't tell me, the picture."

"Yes the picture," confirmed Molly, sensing her mother's amusement and annoyance at this occurring unknown.

"What about Evan," queried Alex, only just remembering the man who was her god father and had been looking after her daughter ever since she had been shot by Arthur Layton.

"I left him a note," replied Molly abruptly, "anyway; I thought that if I actually came here then I would be able to see him soon, well soon for him anyway."

"Oh yes!" Alex realised "I suppose you can, it would surprise him a fair bit I suppose."

This provided a relief in the conversation as they both now felt relaxed enough just to sit back and relax in each other's company. Taking another sip of her drink Alex let the frothy milk brush against her lips reminding her of the way Gene had kissed her the last time they were together. Allowing the coffee into her mouth she suddenly pushed away the glass as she realised that her drink was now disgustingly cold. Would it turn like that with Gene she thought, when that fire and passion had gone would there actually be anything left. She couldn't be with a man who was just a passing fling, not now Molly was here.

"Molls," she said, grabbing her daughter's attention. "About Gene... I'm just going to concentrate on you for now. Just you and me"


	16. Solving the case

_(Sorry it has taken so long to update again, I won't bore you with excuses as there is a whole long list all of them perfectly reasonable, so any way this chapter is based entirely round Gene so just mentions of GALEX but they don't actually interact, don't worry they will in the next chapter. However that isn't a clue to what happens after this slight cliff hanger. Again all reviews are appreciated and thank you for the words of encouragement, though any criticism is also accepted.)_

Chapter Sixteen

With one final glance back towards Alex, Gene reluctantly turned back and ambled along the road, in a direction which he hoped would lead him back to the station. Already his mind was day dreaming about what the future days, weeks and even months might have in store for him. Christmas was only a few months away after all, what did young girls like as Christmas presents any way? "Christ," he muttered, shaking his head. You haven't even sat down and spoken to Alex about any of this and already you're planning their Christmas presents. His, now somewhat bemused thoughts were interrupted by the blaring of a horn as a car flew past the pavement he was walking on. "Shut it you great poofters, or I'll have you arrested for disturbance of the peace," he yelled. Then talking to himself again said, "I really should stop saying that, it's beginning to become a bit of a catch phrase."

The car screeched to a halt just in front of where Gene was walking, he was about to go and give them a piece of his mind when Chris's head came through the open window, "Alright Guv, steady on. It's me and Ray."

"What the bloody hell are you two nonce's doing out of the station," he fumed. Could he not give them one simple task without them ballsing it up. "That gay poofter'd better still be there when I get back or you two u'll be the one's spending the night in the cells, naked and handcuffed together!"

"Don't you worry about him Guv; he's currently paying a visit to one of the other tough bastard cells." Ray's head had now joined Chris's out the window.

Gaining a bemused look from Gene both their heads popped back inside, and he strode towards them. "Raymondo you nonce, can you not remember what happened the last time we let a suspect in someone else's cell to encourage a confession. And I'm not gonna ask how you both managed to lean out of that window at the same time. Honestly I leave you two alone for 5minutes and you're getting cosy in the front seat of a car." Reaching the door that Ray was sat behind, Gene swung it open and pulled a rather red faced Ray out, "Right then, let's see what Chris is like at driving shall we?"

As soon as Gene was sat in the car Chris accelerated madly, keen to impress the Guv. "Wait for Raymondo you twonk," he yelled as a perplexed Ray stood in the road watching the car drive away.

* * *

Finally, Gene, Chris and Ray arrived at the Station. Somewhat later than Gene had anticipated as Chris, upon becoming flustered, had driven the wrong way up a one way street, nearly knocked over a lolly-pop lady and pissed off a severely angry member of the public. However they all arrived in one peace and Gene was pleased to note that a forensics report had arrived on his desk, along with more photographs of the body.

From what Gene could tell the attack had obviously been vicious and not premeditated, though how the body had been placed was a sharp contrast to how she had been killed. A murder weapon had been found a few feet away, and was a small wooden garden fork, which it appeared had been used to stab the victim several times, before a blanket was laid over the body and she had been placed on the path with a bunch of flowers, picked from the nearby flower bed, placed upon her chest.

Gene was sure that Alex would have some long and complicated name for this, but all he knew was that there were two contradicting personalities here, and as forensics had only found one set of footsteps leading away from the body that must mean...

"A split personality," yelled Gene, remembering a late night film he had watched in which this guy was both a psychopathic killer and a priest. "Oy, Shaz. Get me some of Drake's fancy pants psychiatry books."

Keen as ever Shaz jumped up from her seat and fetched some of Alex's books which had found their way into CID, "its psychology Guv," she muttered as she gingerly placed them on his desk.

"Same thing really though," mumbled Gene. Shit, he thought. He couldn't even remember what degree Alex had done at university and he thought she wanted him as a partner. Partner, even the word scared him, he'd never introduced his wife as his partner, he would simply say and here's the missus or words to that effect. Yet now he was describing Alex as his partner, how long had it been, he mentally started to count back the days. It didn't take long, "one bloody day" he muttered. "Christ."

Suddenly snapping out of his now spiralling train of thought he flicked through the book until he reached the index page. Scanning down the page an annoyed expression spread across his face as he realised that apparently 'split personality' wasn't in the index. However as his eyes flicked across the page he came across paranoia, hurriedly turning to the page he absorbed the information and found that it was actually relatively easy to understand.

Feeling pleased with himself he strode into the main area of CID and announced rather proudly, "what we have here is a man suffering from a Paranoid Personality Disorder, PPD or Litigious paranoia, which is shown through jealousy and suspicion and can often lead to murder." So I suggest we phone the men in white coats and ask them to bring a straight jacket, then you can all head off to Luigi's."

Upon hearing this Chris leant across his desk to reach for the phone, knocking his cup of tea on the floor as he did so. Gesturing to Shaz to come and help him, she promptly took the phone from his hand and began organising the collection of Steve, whilst Chris took the Dustpan and brush that she handed him and began to sweep up the pieces of broken mug off the floor.

Ray meanwhile was gathering up the few belongings that he brought into work with him and went to knock on the Guv's door, "Guv, are you not coming to Luigi's then?" he questioned, wondering why Gene was planning on deserting them for the second night running.

"Don't you fret Raymondo," mocked Gene as he strode past and ruffled Ray's hair "I've just got a spot of shopping to do and then I will join you all, and allow you to buy me the beers that I've missed while I was out,"

Ray wasn't going to let it rest there though, the Guv shopping? This was probably the first time the two words had been used in the same sentence, "What are you buying Guv?" he asked.

"That Raymondo, is none of your business," announced Gene as he strode through the double doors causing them to swing on their hinges as he paced down the corridor and out to the road. It was only then that he realised he had lent Alex his car.

* * *

It was about two and a half hours later when Gene arrived at Luigi's, his shopping having taken longer than he had thought it would, and then there had been the problem of getting it back. As he stepped through the archway he peered through the candlelit darkness to his and Alex's usual booth, and finding it unoccupied he sat on a stool at the bar, downing the whiskey that Luigi poured him before ordering a round of drinks. "One bottle of your house rubbish, two glasses, one coke, one lemonade and one orange juice please Luigi," seeing the puzzled look on Luigi's face he added "Alex's daughter has arrived."

Carrying the drinks over to the table in the corner he sat on the bench, running his fingers anxiously through his hair, hoping that Alex would turn up and he wouldn't be left at the end of the evening with an empty bottle of wine and a collection of children's drinks.

Staring at the clock on the wall Gene watched as the seconds slowly passed by, wondering what time Alex had actually meant when she had asked him to meet her in Luigi's in the evening.


	17. Spag Bol

_Sorry it took me so long to update, i am supposed to be doing english creative writing but fanfiction is much more interesting so instead I introduced my english teacher to fanfiction. Please read and review_

Chapter Seventeen

Gene had been sat in Luigi's for half an hour by now, and was beginning to feel like a bit of a twonk sat there with a bottle of wine, some orange juice and two glasses of fizzy drinks. Finally he heard the sound of laughter coming from Luigi's doorway, and saw Alex coming through the door way laden with shopping bags, some of which he hoped would be some new and naughty underwear. What!! He kicked himself under the table, what the hell was he thinking, she had just been shopping with her daughter who was, well he didn't know how old she was but she wasn't very old. He couldn't sit there with Alex and her daughter imagining Alex in her underwear.

"Gene," exclaimed Alex, almost as if she was surprised to see him, leaving her bags on a nearby chair she leant over and gently kissed Gene on the cheek.

Pulling her down onto the bench next to him Gene poured her a glass of wine. Noticing Molly standing nervously next to one of the archways, he flashed her a smile, and beckoned her over, "come over Molly, I've got you a drink," slowly the little girl wandered towards their table, "or to be more precise I've got you three different drinks," Gene added, "didn't know what you liked."

As Molly surveyed the drinks in front of her Alex leant over to Gene, realising that she owed him an explanation for their lateness. "Sorry we're late, didn't want to scratch the Quattro," she said slipping the keys into his trouser pocket.

"Watch your hands Bolls, I've had a very hard day at work," he joked, bringing a smile to her face as she gave him a mock glare.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you soon, I parked a few blocks away so no one will know if you stay," she whispered hoping that it would give him the reassurance that he needed, knowing that she still wanted them to be together, even though Molly was there.

Smiling, Molly began to relax, enjoying the banter between her mum and Gene. Loving this new world she had come to, where the hardest decision she had to make was which of the three drinks to have first.

"Oy Luigi, three spag bolls over here when you're done polishing your wine glasses," Gene's voice boomed across the small restaurant but it was now such a regular occurrence that none of the customers so much as raised their heads.

"Make that two Gene," said Alex.

"Oy, Luigi!" boomed Gene again

A rather tired looking Luigi stepped out of the kitchen, "Yes Mr Hunt,"

"The lovely Signorina here seems to think that your spaghetti bolognaise isn't good enough and so it will just be two for tonight," announced Gene. Then turning to face Molly he said "you're mum doesn't eat enough Molls, but as usual she's sure to eat half of mine so I'll be left hungry at the end."

This made Molly giggle, "she always does that to me as well, like when we had ice cream earlier she didn't have one but she finished off mine."

"Sounds about right," muttered Gene, "Always finishing me off is your mother." At this Alex swiftly kicked Gene under the causing him to grimace slightly, but she needn't have worried Molly was far too young to understand what he had meant and simply thought that he still was referring to food. He chuckled gently at her naivety before whispering to Alex, "that hurt when you kicked me you know."

"Mmn, well maybe I'll kiss it better for you later," she whispered into his ear.

* * *

It was at least two hours later, all the wine had been drunk and the pasta had been polished off, Alex having eaten at least her share having claimed that been drowned was a very hunger making experience. Various members of CID had drifted over during the course of the evening, keen to be introduced to their boss's daughter who seemed to have stolen the Guv's attentions from them for most of the evening. Gene was feeling surprisingly chipper so much so that, although he and Alex hadn't drunk half of what they usually did, he had found himself singing along with the rest of CID when a familiar track came on the radio, which they had persuaded Luigi to put on instead of the usual Italian Opera.

They had settled down though once Luigi began to complain that their noise was causing him to lose customers, so now he had Molly curled up asleep under one arm and the other inconspicuously wrapped around Alex. Somewhere in the distance a clock began to strike midnight prompting Gene to raise his head from his current random musings that he had comfortably settled into. Alex to woke from her day dreams and wriggled slightly, attempting to get the feeling back into her arm, "Spose I'd better get Molly to bed," she murmured, she was somewhat reluctant to leave Gene's company as though no words had been spoken between them in quite a while it had been a companionable silence which in a strange way had brought them closer.

"I'll give you a hand" muttered Gene, then gesturing towards Molly "It doesn't look like she's going anywhere fast." Then slowly and surprisingly gently he lifted the sleeping child into his arms and cradled her body, which looked small and delicate against his sturdy frame.

Effortlessly he carried her up the stairs leading to Alex's flat, with Alex leading the way fumbling with the keys when they reached the front door. Finally the key slipped into the lock and twisted, allowing the door to click open. As Gene began to stride towards the small spare room, Alex shouted after him, "No Gene, she'll have to sleep on the sofa." Ignoring her he continued and carefully balancing Molly's body against his he pulled back the covers and carefully placed her in the bed before pulling the covers back up and tucking them in around her.

Annoyed Alex peered round the doorway and was very surprised to see a new bed with matching bed linen in her spare room. "What the...?" her voice trailed off as Gene turned round to face her and placed his finger on his lips putting a stop to her questions.

"Shopping trip," he muttered, "and you'd better be bloody grateful, that bed was hell getting up those stairs, poor old Raymondo hurt his hip and Chris has a black eye from one of the bed posts."

Alex couldn't help but snigger as she imagined the three of them battling to get the bed up the narrow stairs to her flat. However seeing the disappointed look on his face she stopped laughing and walked over to him, taking his hand she lead him out of Molly's bedroom and into the sitting room. Placing his hand on her waist she drew him into her and tenderly placed her lips upon his.

Somewhat reluctantly Gene pulled away and turned to take his coat of the chair where Alex had put it earlier. "Right then, well I'll best be off then. You've had a tiring day so I'll ermn... see you at work tomorrow, unless well you could have the day off spend some time with Molly. So I guess I'll see you sometime soon then?"

_Please Review (anonymous reviews are accepted)_


	18. Sssh

_A whole long list of apologies to make now. Firstly, sorry I have been so long updating I was stuck doing my original writing coursework for my english GCSE, which when I have submitted it will be turned into a one off fanfiction. Secondly, as you have probably already noticed this chapter is extremely short, try as I might I couldn't spin it out anymore, but hopefully I will update atleast once more this week as I am on holiday the next week and I doubt there will be an internet connection where I am staying in cornwall with my good friend and fellow fanfiction writer Eliephant. Anyways I'll shut up now and let you read the story, please review after you have read it as they really do make a huge difference._

Chapter Eighteen

Gene slowly headed for the door, shrugging his coat on. As he went Alex ran forward to stand in front of the door, her arms and legs spread across the doorway, trying to stop him from leaving, but all it really did was make her already tight jeans pulled tighter around her legs and at that moment all Gene could think about was pulling her away from the doorway and taking her right there and them. But of course then he came across the reason why he was leaving in the first place.

As Gene walked towards her, Alex reached out to him and taking his hand in hers she pulled him towards her, then, raising her hand slowly to his cheek her fingers tracing across his cleanly shaven cheek, "Gene," she whispered, "Please don't leave. Stay."

Those were the words that Gene had been wanting to hear, yet now he heard them it resolved none of his previous reservations. "Alex, you know I'd love to. But we can't I mean," he gestured towards the bedroom that Molly was sleeping in.

Alex began to giggle at this, partly in relief and partly because she had never imagined Gene being shy to spend the night with her when Molly was in the other room. She now changed her tact, and pushed him away from her, seductively walking over to him, purposely allowing her hips to wiggle that extra bit more than they normally would. Stretching upwards she pulled at his tie, loosening it slightly and using it to propel him across the room towards the sofa. Pushing him down onto the sofa, she sat on his lap, placing a finger on his lips as he tried to talk. "So then Gene, how do you think married couples with children ever manage to have sex?" she whispered in his ear.

"Well I ermn, they don't. I mean everyone always says when you get married the sex goes downhill, and it's virtually none existent once the kids come along." He looked up at her, hoping and praying that she would disprove his theory, as right now looking up at her, well he had a perfect view of her amply sized cleavage.

Suddenly swinging her legs off him she stood up, and taking hold of his tie once again pulled him up with her, "Well then Gene, lets hope we never get married as I would be forced to prove you wrong. And the Gene Genies never wrong." Leading him into her bedroom, she kicked the door shut behind her and her giggles could be heard echoing around the room, and then Alex muttering "Sssh be quite or I'll have to arrest you for disturbance of the peace."

Hours later Gene woke up, glancing towards the clock he saw it was still the early hours of the morning, the moonlight was pouring through the slits in the blinds, bathing Alex's body in a soft glow. He wasn't sure why he had woken up, all he knew was that he was sure to be back to sleep soon. Settling his head back into Alex's neck he drank in the sweet lingering smell of her perfume and could already feel his eyelids beggining to close. Yet his musings were interrupted by a smash coming from outside the bedroom.


	19. Broken Glass

_So here is the chapter I promised for the end of last week, however luckily there is some signal in specific areas of our holiday cottage so I have finished it off now. Please let me know what you think by reviewing this chapter._

Chapter Nineteen

The smash was a tinkling of glass, but it sounded like it had been dropped from quite a height as it was a surprisingly loud crash. Pulling back the covers Gene swung his legs out of the bed, relieved now that he had decided to put his boxers back on after his and Alex's antics. She on the other hand, exhausted had fallen straight to sleep, and was naked under the covers. A sight which though he enjoyed it he highly doubted that Molly would appreciate it.

Gently he pushed the door open into the main living area, his toes brushing against the fur of the pale rug which furnished the wooden floor boards. From where he was stood he could see the light from the small floor lamp reflecting in the shards of glass that littered the floor. Molly was stood on a chair in the kitchen, frozen to the spot her arm outstretched but with the glass missing from it.

Slowly a drop of blood fell from her hand and bounced against the glass. Gene covered the floor between them in a matter of seconds his lengthy stride carrying him quickly over to her. However in his hurry he forgot about the glass scattered around the chair, and as he trod on it he could feel the bare skin of his foot being sliced. Yet he felt no pain, only the cool glass upon his skin. Placing his hands on either side of Molly's waist, he effortlessly lifted her down and carried her over to the zebra striped sofa, carefully placing her upon it.

He vaguely recalled some first aid training which he had received upon joining the force, but somehow he had managed to miss all of the refresher courses that he had been offered since.

"Shouldn't I raise my hand or something?" questioned Molly, sure that she was right but was still slightly scared of this supposed fictional Manc Lion that her mother had tamed.

"Yeh, because then you numb the pain," he muttered attempting to sound clever in front of Molly who, he thought, was unnaturally bright. At that age he couldn't even read.

"No it's actually because as your hands above your heart less blood is pumped up there because of the gravitational force acting upon it. So you lose less blood." Why the hell had her mum fallen for a guy with as much intelligence as a grain weevil she wondered.

"Shit" Gene swore under his breath as he walked away and started to rummage through the cupboards looking for where that ridiculous woman he was dating would keep a first aid kit. "Any glass in that cut Molls?" he asked, trying to show himself to be considerate. When had he started calling her Molls anyway? It wasn't as if she had asked him to. Christ! He had only known her a couple of hours.

Finally he came across a red first aid kit at the back of a drinks cupboard hidden behind a bottle of whisky. Why the hell didn't she tell him she had whiskey? Whiskey numbed pain anyway didn't it? But then he supposed you weren't supposed to give children large amounts of alcohol especially expensive alcohol at that. Dampening a wad of kitchen towel he took care not to wake Alex up as the taps had a tendency to squeak once the water reached a certain force.

Returning to where Molly was on the sofa he was glad to see that the bleeding was gradually stopping, her idea had worked for whatever reason to be honest he didn't care. "Right then, give us your hand," he said.

Molly thought he had a very gruff voice but it was kind of how a teddy bear talked, well how she imagined a teddy bear would talk. She was sure he would be very huggable as well, he certainly looked it, with a slight belly from an over indulgence in drink over the years but she would probably have to wait a few days to find out, she doubted he would allow her to hug him within just a few hours of knowing her.

"Ouch," she winced slightly as the pad brushed against the cut in her hand sending a sharp pain up her arm. Seeing her obvious discomfort Gene moved the pad more gently over her skin so it felt like a feather brushing against her.

"There we are then that's all clean now, I'll just get one of them dressing things and some of that sticky tape stuff and we'll be all done and dusted." Molly gave him a weak smile as her hand was obviously giving her quite a bit of pain but she was immensely grateful to him for helping her, and being so gentle as he did it. Placing the gauze pad over the cut he strapped it on tightly around her hand. "If that comes off or it starts to bleed through just come and get me ok?"

"Yeh, thank you" she murmured the need to sleep starting to take hold of her again.

Seeing this Gene said "Right then missy let's get you back to bed," helping her off the sofa and escorting her into the make shift bedroom. Lifting back the cover again he allowed her to slip in between the covers before bending over to give her a hug good night, for some reason he felt that they had bonded during their surprise encounter that night. "Night night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite," he murmured before turning off the light and walking out into the lounge.

As he walked through the door he heard a whispered "Night night," come from her lips. After sweeping up the shards of glass on the floor Gene filled up a glass of water, once again being careful with the squeaky tap, and placed the glass on Molly's bedside table realising that that was why she had gotten up in the first place.

Returning to Alex's bed he saw that her naked figure was now sprawled out across the bed and was terribly glad that Molly hadn't had to come and to ask for help. As he slipped in between the sheets Alex grunted a hello and wriggled over to wrap her arms around his waist and snuggle into his chest.

...

Waking up Alex glanced up at the clock and was shocked to realise how early she had woken up but then remembering the events of the past days she wasn't shocked that she had woken early. Clambering out of bed she was also astonished to find that she wasn't wearing many clothes, well to be honest any clothes at all.

Passing her gaze around the room she looked for where her shirt from last night could be, she could vaguely recall her belt being removed at the door. "Shit," that was probably still in the lounge. But then Gene's shirt had been discarded onto the floor and when they were on the bed hers had been thrown somewhere, but where she couldn't quite remember. "Fuck it," she muttered, "I'll wear his shirt" shrugging it on she did up enough buttons in order to look presentable as a mother but not so many that she stopped looking slutty altogether. When had she started swearing so much anyway? She had never used to do it. I'll have to watch that in front of Molly she thought. A bit of the Gene Genie was obviously starting to rub off on her.

Walking into the kitchen she spotted the first aid kit on the side. Why is that there she thought? "Ah," she sighed as she spotted the bottle of whisky on the side with it, Gene must have had a midnight drink and forgotten to put them back in the cupboard. Reaching for the very 80's looking red kettle she filled it up, wincing as the force of the water made the tap squeak loudly.

"That bloody tap," muttered Gene as he was woken by the high pitched wailing noise. Opening his eyelids the sunlight coming through the slits in the blinds pierced his eyes. "Bring on the winter," he grunted.

Slowly as his eyes adjusted to the new concept of light in the mornings, he usually forgot to draw the curtains; he scanned the room for his shirt. Gazing intently at a spot on the floor he was sure his shirt had been there, he remembered tripping over it last night on his way back.

Bursting through the door to the lounge he opened his mouth to say "Alex have you..." but he stopped when his eyes registered the sight before him. There was Alex dressed only in her underwear and his shirt which stretched down to about halfway to her knees. Though currently she was stretching up to reach the tea bags in one of the top cupboards so the shirt tails barely covered her pants.

Silently he walked over, for a man of his build he was surprisingly light on his feet, so silent that Alex didn't hear him as she busied herself making the tea as he approached. Drawing level with her he wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, "I wondered where my shirt had gone."

Just having him near her made her spine tingle with delight. Turning herself round so that the front of their bodies were pressed together she tenderly greeted him with a morning kiss. "Now then what am I supposed to wear if you're wearing my shirt?" he asked.

"Well I couldn't find my top after last night's adventures," replied Alex quite saucily.

"I think I saw it hanging from the light on the ceiling," he said placing kisses up her neck between each of the words.

"Hey mum, hi Gene," Molly chirped as she entered the kitchen. Surprisingly Gene and Alex didn't spring apart instead they just swivelled round slightly and Gene loosened his grip on Alex's waist slightly so that their bodies weren't so tightly pushed together.

"Morning Molls," they replied, Alex smiling down at her daughter and how quickly she seemed to have settled into her new life in the past.

"Molly what happened to your hand?" asked Alex, rather worried at how her daughter had managed to come to harm within just a few hours of being in this new life.

"Oh I cut it on some glass last night, but it's O.K Gene bandaged it up for me" she said casually not really bothered about it anymore as Gene's bandaging had worked quite well and she no longer felt any pain.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me Gene? I think I have a right to know if my daughters injured." She yelled pushing him away and walking over towards Molly.


	20. Croissants

_How lucky are you an update in just two days! Well how lucky you think you are obviously depends on how much you like this fanfic, so if you are lucky let me know and if you aren't let me know why not. In other words please review. And yes thank you to those who asked I am having a great holiday as the sun is shining. Today at a shop selling sunglasses we found pairs for Alex, Gene and Ray. We are truly obsessed. _

Chapter Twenty

"What do you mean why didn't I tell you?" he shouted, angered at how Alex had reacted towards what he had thought to be his sensitive side. "Firstly it was the middle of the night and as you had had a tiring day you were out for the count and if the noise of that glass smashing couldn't wake you then I doubt anything could."He paused as he was slightly out of breath and then continued, "secondly you were, how shall I put it, not dressed suitably for a midnight outing. Thirdly as it was just a cut on her hand between us we managed perfectly. Didn't we Molls?"

Molly could see how her mother had been visibly softening towards the end of Gene's speech, well until that final phrase anyway. "Oh, that's it play my own daughter against me why don't you," Alex yelled.

"Believe me if I wanted to turn Molly against you I would use better things than that," he retorted, the comments now flying between them.

Alex's mind flashed back to all the mistakes she had made since arriving in 1981. The Thatcherite, Danny Moore, dressing as a prostitute, pretending that she had used to be a prostitute, breaking into a government vault, Chas Cale, Evan White, punching Gene. Punching Gene. That was when she had first known how she felt about him but once again the arguments had just spiralled out of control.

Seeing Alex's mind begin to wander Gene softened his tone and walked over to her, pulling her somewhat reluctant body towards the sofa and away from Molly, who taking the hint began to finish making the tea.

Once Alex was sat on the sofa, with her body contorted slightly so that she was facing towards Gene their eyes met and he took her hands in his and drew her closer. "But you know I'd never do that don't you, and I never could. Molly would never turn against you, she loves you. Like I do. Well differently to how I do... But... well," he tailed off fearing that he had said too much.

However the look on Alex's face said otherwise, she was finding it hard to suppress the grin that was rapidly spreading over her face. "You do know that you can't use that line every time we argue?" she teased.

"We'll never argue again," he promised, though seeing the look of mock disbelief on Alex's face he added, "fine we'll probably argue lots, but I bet the making up sex is bloody brilliant, he whispered, making sure that Molly wouldn't over hear them.

Glancing over at Molly he saw her stirring the two cups of tea, so placing a chaste kiss on Alex's lips he walked over towards Molly. "Thanks Molls, that tea looks well and truly stirred," he joked, knowing that she had been stood there for quite a while trying to appear busy whilst carefully monitoring their argument.

Giggling at how Gene had found her out Molly carried a mug of steaming tea over to her mum, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. "Thanks Molls," murmured Alex as she brought her feet up onto the sofa, pulling Gene's crumpled shirt over her knees.

It was only now that Molly realised that Gene was only dressed in his boxer shorts as he was ferreting through the fridge. "Croissants?" he asked as he stood up, then noticing Molly looking at his bare chest he said "sorry about my current state of undress but your mother appears to have stolen my shirt, and all my other spare ones are in the wash." This made Alex giggle slightly. Giggle thought Molly her mum never giggled, she laughed occasionally but never giggled. Christ she's practically swooning!

"Do you live here then" Molly asked Gene perfectly innocently. In fact she rather hoped that he did, he was quite good fun and certainly made her mum happy, even though they argued.

Her question made Alex stop giggling and instead she began to choke on her tea. "No, I just used to keep some spare shirts here before your mum moved in, in case I had drunk slightly too much to drive home. However your mum seems to have taken to wearing them. Don't know why she's got a whole wardrobe of her own clothes." Gene explained keen for the little girl not to get the wrong idea.

"Oh right," Molly said not even trying to disguise the obvious disappointment in her voice, in fact she hoped that it would let her mum know that she was really alright with the situation well more than alright. She was over the moon to have arrived here and to already have a readymade family. Not that she would tell Gene that she knew what most men were like; it would probably scare him off. "Did you mention croissants?"

"I most certainly did, how does croissants and jam sound for breakfast Molls?" he asked, his sounding quite jolly when deep down he was starting to worry about how he had become all domesticated all of a sudden.

Getting up from her curled up position on the sofa, Alex stretched her legs and walked over to them, "we don't have any croissants Gene, I know you think I'm posh but that doesn't mean that the cupboards are automatically stocked," she joked, before opening the cupboards hoping that there was at least a loaf of bread somewhere that they could eat for breakfast.

Gene stood back and watched, wanting to see the expression on Alex's face when she opened the cupboards and he wasn't disappointed. It was a mixture between shock and delight. "I can be quite domesticated when I want to be you know," laughed Gene as Alex's mouth was still wide open. "So you see we actually do have croissants, I wouldn't want Molly going hungry. She's got to grow up to be as tall as you and you could do with a bit more meat on your bones." Then turning to Molly he said, "She really doesn't eat enough."

...

As they sat down to a fairly civilised breakfast they were surrounded by different pastries and at least four different types of jam, Genes only explanation having been that he had liked the different colours. Just as Alex took a bite out of the crumbly pastry Molly asked "So why don't you live with us Gene?"

This made Alex once again choke slightly on the flakes of food. "Blimey Molls, why do you ask so many questions n the morning?" she replied, stalling and trying to think of an answer.

Gene however went for the more direct approach by saying, "well you see the thing is Molls your mum and I have only been together a few days so that would be moving quite quickly."

"Only a few days," Molly replied shocked at how quickly her mother had accepted Gene into her life.

"Well we've known each other a long time..." responded Alex.

However she was interrupted by Gene, "well we've been working together for a few months now..."

She interrupted him back "Gene!" she barked "will you let me finish, so ermn no one else really knows about us yet."

"Don't worry mum I don't care how long you've known each other, god I don't want your life history." said Molly, she was beginning to sound like a teenager now.

They continued to eat their breakfast in silence, until Alex noticed that Gene kept looking up at the clock and glancing up at it she realised that it was 8:30. "Right then Molls eat up quickly or you'll be late for school and we'll be late for work." Turning to Gene she realised that she had obviously been rather presumptuous, "You will give Molly a lift to school won't you?"

"Of course, anyway who cares about being late for work? I'm the boss, well apart from those who employ me, but hey if they wanted to sack me then they could have done it years ago." However he did scrape his chair backwards and head into the bathroom to wash and brush up with shouts of, "and Alex can I have my shirt back please?"

Just ten minutes later they were ready, Gene's shirt looking rather crumpled and he had no tie as neither he nor Alex could remember what happened to it the previous night. As they walked down the stairs they were met with moans from Molly who was waiting by the Quattro "Do I have to go to school, I hate having to go to a Catholic School, when I'm not Catholic."

An exasperated Alex pulled back her seat so that Molly could clamber into the back before replying, "Molls you've always gone to a Catholic School."

Sighing Molly put on her stroppy teenager voice and groaned "That's how I know that I'll hate it."

Beginning to sound more motherly every minute Alex replied "We'll discuss this later, but for now you are going to school."

...

After dropping Molly off at school Alex and Gene finally arrived at work only about half an hour later than they usually did, well apart from when Alex had a hangover and didn't come in till mid day, but that wasn't going to happen anymore. Outside the doors to the main CID area Gene was just about to step through them when Alex held him back, "I didn't tell you, I love you to," Leaning in she slowly placed a kiss on his lips before playfully pushing him in through the doors.

They were greeted with a typical CID scene, Shaz was there tapping away on her typewriter whilst Chris and Ray had their feet up on the desks, supping away at cups of tea probably made for them by Shaz. As the doors slammed shut behind them Ray looked up and after one glance Ray cried "see I told you he'd get into her knickers!"


	21. Ray's mistake

_These chapters are just whizzing along, I wrote this on the beach and then typed it up this evening. Whilst building sandcastles, ah you never get too old for sand castles. Any way the usual begging, please read and review._

Chapter Twenty One

A silence fell across the room, no one able to believe what Ray had just said. Well they could believe it; just not that he said it when the Guv and DI Drake were in the room as well. The only sound to be heard was the gentle ping of Shaz's type writer, though what she was writing couldn't have made much sense as her eyes were glued to where Gene and Alex were frozen by the door. Shit! They both thought we should have entered separately.

Inconspicuously Gene gently squeezed Alex's hand to reassure her before striding over to where an anxious Ray was frozen to his chair. As Gene reached the desk Ray dropped his feet to the floor knocking various pieces of office equipment over as he did so.

"DC Ray Carling, I suggest that you have a little bit more respect for your senior officers or your other hip will be severely damaged and in a way which is much more painful than lugging bedroom furniture up a flight of stairs." Gene was fuming, his face glowing red. The only time Alex could remember it being that colour was when they had been trapped in the vault at Edgehampton.

As Gene turned away to walk into his office, Ray rather stupidly sniggered, the biggest mistake that he could have made. As the Guv slowly turned around a sense of impending doom settled over them all, the anger had quite obviously consumed Gene as he barked, "Carling my office now!" It was an order that no one even Ray would be stupid enough to disobey.

As the door to his office slammed shut the rest of the team let out a sigh of relief, and then turned to watch Ray's dressing down through the windows of the Guv's office. The blinds hadn't been pulled down which Alex was sure Gene had done to add to Ray's public humiliation.

Noticing them all looking through the windows Gene gave them all a wink before quickly smiling at Alex. She realised that this was his way of letting them know that though he was angry he was still in control and therefore unlikely to do anything stupid.

However judging by his performance he was obviously a very good actor and loved playing to a crowd. "Raymondo, if you're not careful you will be so badly broken that you will never see any bed action for the rest of your life, let alone be able to down the pints of bitter that o one will buy you!"

"Yes Guv," muttered Ray, quietly so that he hoped no one else could hear him.

"Yes Guv?" boomed Gene in a questioning way, suggesting that his answer wasn't sufficient.

"Sorry Guv," murmured Ray.

"That's more like it Raymondo but it's not just me that you should be apologising to," said Gene, lowering the volume of his voice slightly. Seeing his now confused look Gene continued. "I think you'll find Raymondo that women also have feelings, and DI Drake deserves a lot more respect from you than she is currently getting."

"So..." Ray drawled after Gene had finished his little speech.

"So Raymondo you will go and apologise, and I men a real apology none of your usual shit." With this Gene left the office leaving the door open for Ray, as he passed Alex's desk he gave her another wink before striding through the swinging doors. With that the rest of the team began to get back to work, Alex shifting through the files on her desk, attempting to remember which case they had been working on last. Ah yes, the Steve Merton case, that seemed so long ago. To her it felt like her, Gene and Molly had been together for weeks, when in reality it had only been a few days. "Chris, the Steve Merton case, what happened?"

Chris looked thoroughly pleased to be asked something so important, usually it would be Ray but he was still sulking in Gene's office. "Well Ma'am he got banged up but was then sent to one of them psychology hospitals."

"Psychiatric hospital Chris, but thank you." With this praise Chris blushed slightly and relieved a thumbs up from Shaz. Gene really doesn't give him enough praise Alex thought.

...

Meanwhile Gene was at the front desk waiting for Viv to come back from replenishing the loo roll supplies in the gent's toilets. Impatiently he rang the little silver bell on the desk which caused a high pitched tinging sound to echo around the corridors. "Ah Viv," he exclaimed as the young duty sergeant appeared on one of the corridors.

Viv always felt that he should salute to the Guv, but he wasn't quite sure how the Guv or the rest of the team would take it, so he settled for "Yes Guv, how can I help."

Gene liked Viv, he was always willing to help and never made stupid mistakes like Ray or Chris did, "any messages Viv?" He rarely gave out his own offices phone number as he disliked speaking on the phone so he always got Viv to take his messages.

"Just the one Guv, a chap called he wouldn't give me his name but said to tell you 'Rapunzel's waiting.'" These types of messages had originally confused him, but he had learnt not to question them.

"Ah," muttered Gene, "you got that little black book I gave you Viv?" Viv handed the black notebook over and then busied himself once more with the paper work that he wasn't qualified to do but no one else would do it.

...

A few minutes after Gene had left CID Ray made his way out and over to his desk, however to do so he had to walk past Alex's and as he did so she just happened to cough rather badly and as he looked up she raised her eyebrows saying "Have you got something to say?"

He did consider just ignoring her walking on but now that she and the Guv were on sleeping terms it probably wouldn't be wise to do so. "Yes ermn, sorry Ma'am."

"Apology accepted Ray," she said in a rather patronising voice, as he walked away she heard him mutter something incoherent, "something else Ray," she asked just to let him know that she heard him.

Well thought Alex as they all settled down to work free of distractions, we managed to get out of that little dilemma quite well.

However just as some amount of productive work was being done Gene came in and disrupted the peace, "right then Bolls, my office!" Alex was sure that if Ray hadn't received his dressing down earlier there would have been a few comments made but as it was there were just a few raised eyebrows and nothing more. As Gene sat at his desk he watched Alex's once more denim clad legs step their way over towards him, her shirt (one of her own) had originally been buttoned up to the top though once they had dropped Molly off at school a few buttons had been undone and the bottom had been tied loosely around her waist, giving him the merest glimpse of the bare flesh that he had enjoyed the night before.

Shutting the door behind her Alex wondered if she should close the blinds as well but then decided that given the current circumstances that probably wasn't such a good idea. "Yes Guv, what can I do for you," she asked saucily.

"Well DI Drake" he replied in an equally sexy voice, "I can think of a lot of things you can do for me however some may say that it wouldn't be appropriate so I'll tell you those later."

This made Alex smile, there was going to be a later, which would hopefully end with him staying the night. She voiced her thoughts by saying, "well I will definitely take your thoughts into consideration tonight then." As she said 

this she wandered around to his side of the desk and perched her bum on the one area clear of junk, swinging her legs as he, very obviously, appraised her body.

Dragging his eyes away from her chest Gene pulled out the black book which Viv had handed him earlier. "This here Bolls is my book of contacts. Some may call them grasses. Next to each name is a codeword and its translation. Currently we are looking out find out what 'Rapunzel's waiting' means, which was a message left for me earlier."

Wow thought Alex, this is terribly organised for the Gene Genie. Just then a piece of paper fell out of the notebook and glided down to the floor, hopping off the desk Alex picked it up and as she did so it opened up. Looking down at the pencil drawing Alex took it all in. It was the doodle.


	22. The Doodle

_It's been a while since I've updated I was too busy being a nerd at chemistry camp. I'm quite happy I have got loads of idea of where I want to take this, the only problem is the short amount of time that has passed in these 22 chapters, so in between some of the events taking place I may say that a few weeks or perhaps even a month have passed. Any way I'll let you get on with reading this now, please read and review. Gem6 I hope this is back up to my usual standard, be that high or low in your opinion._

Chapter 22

"Shit" swore Gene, suddenly remembering what was on the piece of paper that Alex was holding. He had hurriedly shoved it in the black book, having retrieved it from the notice board, as he knew that no one, especially Alex, would ever look in there without his permission. He was right as well, it had remained safely hidden at the front desk, well until he had stupidly put it right into Alex's hands. "Bollocks" he swore again.

Alex meanwhile was gazing intently at the carefully drawn sketch in front of her, it was actually quite good, though he had obviously used some artistic licence making her breasts bigger and stomach slimmer. A glimmer of a smile started to spread across her face but she quickly covered it up, not wanting to let Gene know her true feelings quite yet. She wanted to make him sweat a bit first.

She walked slowly and purposefully over to the door then pulled down the blind, making sure that it clanged against the door on its way down so that it would grab the attention of those in the office, she then continued to do the same thing to all of the windows before turning and walking over to him. She trailed her fingers down his face letting them rest on his cheek. Well thought Gene, this is better than a punch. Then abruptly she turned his face so that his eyes were resting on her chest, delicately gliding her fingers over his lips she said "so Gene, this picture."

Gene had changed his mind now, he would have preferred a punch, at least it didn't suggest that she was going to torture him slowly, and it clearly showed her feelings, whereas this was just confusing. He was feeling slightly scared now, he didn't like it when Alex was angry at the best of times but at least then she was showing him how she felt. He gulped down his fear and then raised his eyes to meet hers; as, though he greatly enjoyed gazing at her tits he thought that given the circumstances it probably wasn't the best idea. "Yeah, the picture..." his voice trailed off, unsure of exactly what he should be saying right now. Well he guessed he should probably be apologising but a man had the right to draw out his fantasies didn't he?

Seeing his obvious nervousness Alex decided to put him out of his misery, well pretty soon anyway. Placing the doodle on the desk in front of him, she moved her hand from his face and sauntered around his chair, swinging it as she walked past so that she was now stood on the other side of the desk. With one hand she rotated the drawing so that it was parallel to her gaze, pretending to analyze it carefully she muttered, "Exactly how am I stood in this then Gene, I suppose the angles are quite important in order for it to work properly." She was finding it incredibly difficult not to burst out laughing right now, and seeing his face realised that he had worked out that she was joking.

However he had seemingly decided to play along as he stood up and moved behind her, "well you elbows are sort of bent onto the table propping you up."

Alex followed his instructions never taking her eyes of the piece of paper that lay before her. "So your hands are where?"

Gene now realised where this was going and was very eager to play along with her game, his only worry was that someone would walk in on them but he wasn't even too bothered about that. Slowly he smoothed his hands down her body letting them gently grazing over the curves of her breasts which made a little sigh come out of her mouth. Finally they came to rest on her waist, sensing her reaction to their sudden closeness he then one slid deliberately down to the button on her jeans.

"Right then," said Alex abruptly breaking the tension, "we should really try that some time."Then she turned around and mockingly pushed him away, before walking over to open the blinds and leaving the rest of the office with a view of a very flushed looking Gene.

After watching her settle back down at her desk Gene straightened his tie, he was unsure when exactly it had been made wonky but somehow it had been. Glancing down at the desk he noticed the black book which they had originally been working 

with. Grabbing it he walked purposefully over to her desk with a casual shout to Ray as he passed his desk, "zip it Raymondo!" Stopping at Alex's he whipped the pen out of her hand that she was pretending to write with and placed it upon the desk, "now that was mean," he whispered playfully nipping her ear with his teeth when he was sure that no one else was looking. Then deciding to give her the brush off as well he strode out of the office, then as if it was an afterthought he shouted "look up that phrase Bolls," throwing the black book at her before exiting the room.

However now he had left the room he had no idea what he had planned to do, he was sure that he had meant to do something but just what he could no longer remember what.

Just then Alex came hurtling through the doors and Gene pretended to be busy sorting through a pile of paperwork on the front desk, something which he knew Viv wouldn't be too happy about. He was very particular about the order of his many piles of paper.

She appeared to be breathless yet she had only flounced through the office, "Drugs... docks ... tomorrow morning ... boats ... Guv," she panted out hoping to god that Gene understood what she was saying because she didn't want to try and get that out again.

"Christ Bolls, not very fit are you. We'll have to get you some more regular exercise," he laughed, before glancing round and then steering her out of CID with his arm around her waist. "Right then we'll be off to these docks you were muttering about."

"O.K. what about Ray and Chris? Or will we be starting that new exercise regime whilst we're there?" she said in as flirty a voice as she could manage, which had improved dramatically since her arrival in 1981 or maybe she was just getting more practice than she had used to.

"Nope Bolls, Raymondo and that twonk will not be joining us as we need to be fairly discreet and they aren't famed for their subtlety." They had now reached the front steps which lead to the Quattro, parked as usual in prime position so that Gene wouldn't have to walk too far in the morning when he was still half asleep. He fell silent as they passed the commissioner and then started up again as soon as he was safely out of ear shot, "and as for that exercise though I would love to it would be very unprofessional of us Bolls and I couldn't possibly ruin my amazing reputation."

"Well then, that's two 'amazing reputations' you've got that you're going to have to work hard not to spoil," as she said this she ran her fingers lightly up the inside of his thigh making him stall the car as he tried to set off.

"Bolls, you are far too distracting," he laughed, finally managing to set off and terribly glad that no one had been there to witness his mistake because of yet another reputation that he could have ruined. Then suddenly business mode set in and his mind was back on the case, "so what time's this shipment coming in then Bolls?"

"Around five in the morning Guv, that black book of yours is surprisingly detailed," she replied still with a slight lilt to her voice.

He smiled at this, his mind wandering and coming up with a variety of different ways in which he could twist her words slightly to revert the conversation back to its original topic. But then he remembered his new sudden responsibilities, "but what are we going to do with Molly?" he asked.

_Slightly rubbishy cliff hanger I know but still please Read and Review._


	23. Di

Chapter 23

_Yes this chapter is long overdue, and I have no excuses. I haven't been on holiday and could probably have found time to write it, however I found this chapter hard to write. Not because anything truly terrible happens in it, in fact looking back noting much does happen in it but I just felt that this and the next chapter just needed to be written to show where Alex is now._

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Shit thought Alex, the only down side to this new world in the past was that she had no childcare, back in 2008 Evan would gladly have looked after Molly whenever it was needed, and often when it wasn't really but he was just feeling lonely. But he wasn't here, his different younger self was, but Alex thought that it would probably be best to avoid him now; she didn't want Molly being disappointed in her godfather. With her and Gene in the same job there would undoubtedly be more times like these when they were both needed to be on a job at an awkward time leaving Molly alone. "She'll have to come with us," she reasoned.

"But it's dangerous," Gene burst out, images of guns and violence flashing through his head, not wanting Molly to have to witness any of that, corrupting what he judged to be an innocent and pure mind.

"She'll be fine; she can wait in the car." Alex remembered the last time she had asked Molly to wait in the car, and was sure that because of that 'incident' Molly would definitely be on her best behaviour. "Any way, it's so early that she'll probably just go to sleep," she added as an afterthought. She knew that it was a downright lie; Molly would be far too excited to be on a proper police drugs bust to sleep, but at least it would put his mind at rest.

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As they arrived at the docks Alex remembered the last time they had been there, it had been the ridiculous incident with the A and the B team, quite how Chris had managed to get out of that alive she would never know, but then she hadn't really concerned herself with that back then. She had been so certain that they were all imaginary constructs that it was only logical that they couldn't die. She had of course changed her mind after Shaz's stabbing, acting on impulse rather than over analyzed nonsense.

"Bolls, I can practically hear the cogs turning in your head," Gene joked. Well he pretended to joke but really he didn't want her thinking too hard, she pretended to only look into other peoples psychology but he knew she would probably be working over every move she had made during that day and he didn't want her analyzing herself out of their relationship as that would probably be a very easy thing to do. How he was going to stop her thinking for the rest of their lives, (if he lasted that long without screwing up,) he didn't know. The only way he knew to stop a woman thinking for a long period of time was sex and he didn't think that would work with Alex, well of course given the chance the Gene Genie would be able to work his magic but chances like those were unlikely to come along often due to the occupant of the room next to theirs. Hers, he corrected himself, it's her room, you just sleep in it.

The stones in the sandy floor crunched gently as the Quattro raced over them, Gene never wanting to go below the speed limit if it was at all possible. Apart from when Molly was in the car of course, that morning when he had driven her to school he had been a model driver, even insisting that Molly wore her seatbelt, refusing to listen to her complaints that he and her mum weren't. To persuade her he had cobbled together a sentence full of made up scientific facts that just made her giggle as she put on her seatbelt.

If it had been an old car it would have screeched to a halt as he swung it around to face the river, but Gene obviously kept his baby well oiled so it just glided smoothly to a stop, just as it had done on her first day in this 'dystopia' when he had pulled up to save her from Markham.

"Right then," announced Alex, getting back down to business, "we need to find somewhere to use as a hiding place so we can stakeout this drug deal whilst it's taking place."

"It's not a bloody game of hide and seek you know Bolls, this is real police work," joked Gene as he threw the car door open, forgetting all about being discreet.

"What, how can real police work take place in a 'fantasy' world?" inquired Alex, but Gene knew she wasn't being serious any more, since Molly's arrival she had began to laugh and joke about her previous behaviour. Which he 

surprisingly hadn't found too weird, after all she was just acting the way Tyler always had but, just like Alex, he had settled down after a while. That Annie had obviously been a good influence on him. Hang on. Did that mean that he had been a good influence on Alex? The Gene Genie a good influence? That couldn't be right!

It was nearing 3 0'clock and the rainclouds were beginning to firmly establish themselves in the sky forming a grey mass determined to block out the sun. As Alex looked around, for the first time she didn't try to connect what she was seeing to what she had used to call the 'real world.' No longer was she trying to make links and remember what this would look like in the future, to her it was just the London docks, a little bit chilly with a faint smell of seaweed drifting in from the water.

"See any speed boats you fancy riding Gene?" she called as he began to walk along the edge of the deserted docks, once again making reference to their shared past and the little pieces of history that they had created.

"No, but I can see something else that I wouldn't mind riding," he said, managing to keep his tone serious, but turning round to wink at her. Hoping to make that immature smile cross her face, the type you usually see on teenagers when they think they have just cracked a really dirty joke.

They walked on for a while after that in a companionable silence, their eyes flicking from side to side as they weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of certain look out places, eventually they reached a bridge, marking the furthest point that the boat shipping in the drugs would be able to reach, and having found nowhere to stake out they turned back.

As they were walked back Alex found a small stone in her path and reverted to a child hood game that she used to play when walking back from school. She kicked the stone in front of her with the toe of one of her white boots; this continued for a while as Gene looked on with amusement and muttered something about her joining the CID football team.

Finally the stone landed with a gentle plop in the water, and glancing down slightly sadly at it Alex spotted a boat moored just below them and grabbing Gene's arm she steered him towards it, quite pleased to be the one to find the perfect hiding place.

With a look of sheer childish glee Gene jumped from the bank down onto the boat, causing Alex to cry, "No Gene don't rock the boat."

"You can rock my boat any time love," he joked as he started to scout around the inside of the boat, quite shocked at how he had changed to this slightly dirty sense of humour.

Just as Alex was about to clamber down and join him she stopped as her eyes caught a word written at the front of the boat's hull, a word that made her mind flash back.

_It was about 27 years into her future or a few months into her past depending on which way you looked at it, and she could see herself being dragged along the docks. The clouds lingering in the sky on a day just like today, her plain trouser suit and boring straight brown hair looking somewhat ruffled as Arthur Layton dragged her along the side of the Thames. The boat that had been her transport here with its dimly lit skeleton of a hull and the pile of dirtied rags on which she had found herself collapsing._

It was here, and as she read the name she was sure, just that one word. 'Di.'

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_Just a quick nagging reminder for you to review as having reached the bottom of the page you have obviously read this chapter._


	24. The begginings of a stake out

_I tried to get this chapter up a bit sooner to make up for the lateness of the chapter previous to this, thanks for all the encouraging reviews, it really does help to know that this is appreciated so do take the time to review having read this. Even if there are some negative comments._

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**Chapter Twenty Four**

_Yet again Alex heard the shot of the gun and saw the bullet coming towards her but instead of seeing the red car bursting into flames and the white clown looming down on her she saw images of her and Gene cuddled up in a corner of Luigi's and Molly in her school uniform stood next to the Quattro, the good memories having replaced the bad ones._

Gene returned in time to find Alex swaying on the spot, just off the water's edge. Not thinking that he had enough time to get up and pull her back he stood at the bow of the boat just above the point where her gaze was fixed. He was surprised to see the look of horror on her face change to a beaming smile as her eyelids flickered open. "You planning on catching me then Gene?" asked Alex realising that he had obviously thought she was going to fall.

"I'll catch you whenever you fall Bolls," he announced as she jumped into his arms.

A look of amusement passed through Alex's eyes, "anyone would think you were a member of 'Westlife' Gene," she joked only after realising that he of course wouldn't have a clue who 'Westlife' were.

"Who the bloody hell are 'Westlife?'" muttered Gene, feeling slightly out of the loop, worrying that he was beginning to show his age.

"Oh, just a boy band," Alex said offhandedly, "you probably haven't heard of them." If he had heard of them she would be amazed, and slightly confused.

"A boy band," he exclaimed, "I'm not a bloody queer."

Alex rolled her eyes at this, she was still amazed by the obvious homophobia in the Police Force," of course you're not gay Gene," ah the gay gene, they'd start looking for that in about 25years time. "Your performance last night certainly proved that," not that she had ever doubted his feelings towards the opposite sex; he had made them perfectly clear when he'd squeezed her breast on her first day in CID.

Gene wrapped his arm around her waist and steered her into the main area of the boat, still not totally convinced of her health. "So the Gene Genie substantial enough for you then?" he said it in a jokey manner but was actually quite serious, he'd been meaning to ask her that morning but was interrupted when Molly had arrived in the kitchen.

"Oh you're more than enough for me, and an infinite amount better than any Thatcherite businessmen." As she added the last bit it quashed any doubts that he might have had before. In his opinion he was the Manc Lion and could fight off anyone, but it was Alex's opinion that mattered to him. So as he heard those words a rather smug smile became firmly printed onto his face.

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The rain clouds from the day before had begun to show why they were so dark in colour, the rain pelting down and bouncing off the windscreen of the Quattro and is bright red metal work. The pavements being showered with water from the puddles Gene was speeding through, forcing the water out from under the tires. They were of course late, even though Gene had insisted on them waking up at three that morning, him and Alex hadn't made it out of the bedroom until half past and then they had realised that, following regulations for once, both of their guns were locked up safely at the station so Gene had had to persuade Viv out of bed so that he could unlock the safe. Between all this Molly had managed to fit herself in between all of the hustle and bustle.

Neither of them had really thought about what they were going to do on the 'drugs bust' as it had become known, usually these things happened at night so they would have all day to argue over the plan and the various issues aroused by it, but as it was early in the morning and Gene had only briefly popped into CID after exploring the docks to let them know where to meet and what time they had to be in place so as not to be seen. Both of them were far too tired to be thinking about it at that moment, feeling rather deprived of sleep and their early morning activities seemingly tired them out even more.

The boat was still there in the docks when they arrived, Alex had become slightly worried that it would have been moved and they would have to rather hurriedly find another place to hide, Gene slowed down ever so slightly so as to try not to draw attention to them, though Alex had previously suggested that they take an unmarked police car as they were slightly less conspicuous than the bright red paint with which the Quattro was painted. Apparently this was not to be done as for some reason it would have made the stake out less likely to be successful, a degree of male logic that she couldn't quite work out.

Pulling behind an old abandoned warehouse they saw that a squad car was already parked there so Ray and Chris had obviously already arrived with which ever members of plod that they had chosen for this particular case. That was about the only task that Gene had trusted Ray with, and Alex was sure they would have the youngest women available with blonde hair and at least a D cup.

"Sure you'll be alright Molls?" questioned Gene, still uncertain as to her safety at four in the morning behind an old warehouse when they knew that there would possibly be dangerous criminals around.

"I'll be fine," Molly assured him, attempting to sound wide awake but really she would have given almost anything to be able to crawl back into bed. Leaning back Gene ruffled her hair before leaving the car to go and find Ray and Chris to see what they had managed to screw up this time.

"Sure Molls?" Alex had gone from being perfectly confident of Molly's safety to worrying about losing her again, she had just begun to accept that as she had chosen this world as the one that she would live in then, just as Sam Tyler had done, she and Molly could die.

"I'll be fine Mum. Really. Any way we've got to get through today so that you can replace Yuro the parrot." Molly assured her mum again, and made reference to one of the few things that she missed from 2008. She could live without her new parrot and godfather Evan; she could even survive without what her mum called the 'mod cons,' like the internet that had provided her a clue to getting here, iPods and mobile phones.

"Alright then," she said rather reluctantly, "and this time Molls, please do stay in the car." She said it almost pleadingly, having seen parallels between this day and the one when she was shot, the boat's name, the brief discussion about the parrot and Molly staying in the car. However one thing did keep her doubts and worries at bay, in knowing that this time Gene would be here, and just as Ray said if you were where the Guv was then you were safe.

Having locked Molly in the car Alex made her way over to the boat that her and Gene had selected the previous day, from her position on the bank she could see Ray sat next to a member of plod who, as predicted, had extraordinarily large breasts, which Ray was leaning over to take a 'vital' piece of equipment out of the box at her feet. Chris had his feet propped up on the steering wheel of the boat that was in much better condition than when Alex had been on it in 2008. He had fallen asleep with his usual bacon sandwich in his hand. Gene stood in the middle of the floor was looking bored already, Alex imagined that he would get fed up very quickly on stake outs with not much to do.

Jumping on board, Gene instantly muttered something about rocking the boat, which caused a smile to come to her face and a bemused look from Ray, before he went back to trying to chat up PC Godard. Rather reluctantly he and Alex perched themselves on an old pair of deckchairs from which the material hadn't rotted away too much, and settled down for the long wait, occasionally resorting to a game of noughts and crosses drawn in the dust on the floor.

The time seemed to pass surprisingly slowly, Alex and Gene both feeling that it was somewhat awkward to engage in a conversation for fear of giving their relationship away to the two detectives sat in front of them. Eventually they saw a boat, a similar size to 'Di', coming out of the mist and up the river towards them. "Right then team, this is it!" announced Gene.

_I'm sorry for being a nag but please do Read and Review._


	25. Ray plays the hero

_Ooh an update in what, 2 days? I'm doing quite well at the moment I think. Ooh and get this, how nerdy am I, I now have a graph showing the word lengths of each chapter and write higher than the average for each chapter. So the theory is that they will gradually get longer._

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Chapter Twenty Five

The moment those words left his mouth the whole team was ready for action and suddenly weren't as tired as they had been earlier, Chris jumped up off his seat and promptly hit his head on the roof but then Gene figured he had probably been dropped on his head as a baby any way so it wouldn't make much of a difference, though the rather shocked look on his face was worthy of a prize, especially with the bacon and tomato sauce dripping down his top. Ray had found the important piece of equipment that he was looking for which turned out to be his ID card, Gene couldn't remember the last time he had used it, back in Manchester he'd had a tendency to screw up arrests and so was usually prevented from being put in those situations.

Looking around Alex found it hard to believe that this was in fact London Met's CID, Gene definitely looked the part in his smart suit and tie covered with his long black coat to keep him warm this early in the morning. She was dressed, well not what she would call professionally, back in 2008 it was all plain shirts and grey trousers with a suit with a jacket, but now she was dressed in jeans and a baggy t-shirt dress type thing, held close to her body with a big belt. Definitely very 80's, and seeing as she was the only female DI in the Met no one could compare her to anyone else so for once she made the rules. Then there was Ray and Chris and they weren't even worth commenting on, it wasn't particularly the way they were dressed, more the way they wore the clothes. She could never get used to Ray's perm and Chris's tight white trousers that apparently were 'cool.'

The boat was nearly upon them now and it was only at this point that Gene realised they hadn't planned what to do next, Ray it appeared has his own plan as jumping from the side of the boat that they were on and onto the drug traffickers boat. For a moment it looked like he was going to land in the water, as if in slow motion his feet pushed off from the rails and his arms outstretched to grab on to those of the other boat. As his fingers closed around the railings he turned around and Alex was sure that he winked at the busty PC, before swinging himself almost effortlessly up and onto the boat.

That was the last they saw of him for quite a while, they were almost worried that he had forgotten that the boat was still being steered along the docks so he couldn't arrest the driver quite yet. Gene could be heard to mutter "Bloody twonk," as Ray disappeared inside the cabin whilst the young PC seemed to be swooning on the spot much as Alex had been the previous day. Chris was gazing after the boat in absolute disbelief at the magnificent feat that his colleague and friend had just achieved.

Gene was partly dismayed at the stupidity of his colleague, after all he reminisced, Tyler had died because of his own stupidity. Though there was a part of Gene, a tiny part that was jealous. He should have tried to impress Alex like that, but then he doubted that she would have been impressed, she had mocked him for his efforts with the speed boat and probably would have yelled at him for his stupidity and foolishness.

They saw the boat slowly pulling up to the docks and instantly ran up to its moorings to see Ray leading a balding man with a pot belly down the Gang plank that Chris had set up. Alex almost felt that she should cheer, it was almost as if it was something you would watch in a film, however she didn't think the Guv would appreciate her celebrations. "Right then Raymondo, cuff him and get him down the station. Then you and I are going to have a little talk," Gene barked out, "Chris you can go with him, and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid!"

Holding the suspects arms behind his back with one hand with the other Ray was searching around his belt for a pair of handcuffs, noticing this Chris threw him a pair, which very nearly hit him square on the nose though he managed to duck out of the way in time so that he caught one of the rings on the end of his finger. He was doing quite well at impressing PC Godard, having not made a fool of himself once. Though Alex thought, this meant that as the odds were against him he was likely to have terrible luck for the rest of the week.

As Ray and Chris turned to walk towards the car Goddard also turned as if to go with them, however Alex knew where this was going and it would undoubtedly end with her and Ray in the stationary cupboard on the second floor. Leaving Chris to deal with the confused bloke that Ray had escorted off the boat, and though Chris did have his merits she couldn't quite see them securing a conviction based on an interview conducted by him.

For once Gene agreed with her and he racked his brains for a job that she could do, "Yes Love, you can ermn, go and clear up the boat we were on. I'm sure we left it in a bit of a mess."

At this Alex shot Gene a dirty look, if he expected a woman to clean up after him all the time then he definitely had another thing coming, she never picked up her husband's shirts when they were married so she wasn't going to clean up after him.

Sensing this Gene added, "And then take the rest of the day off, you've been up early so we'll see you tomorrow." Reluctantly PC Godard turned and retraced their steps to the boat dragging her feet slightly as she walked, obviously having hoped to get to know Ray a little better once they had arrived at the station.

"Right then Guv," Alex said putting emphasis onto the Guv part of it, probably in order to show how she could also be professional even if he was sharing her bed every night. "We should go and check out these drugs."

Together they walked over to the boat, not wrapped around each other or even holding hands, trying desperately to be professional and show how their new found relationship wouldn't impact their work. However as previously and probably since they had met their strides matched purposely. Gene was even the perfect gentleman by letting her walk up the gangplank first though that may just have been so that he could scare her by jumping up and down on the wooden board to make it bounce under his weight.

Finally Alex felt her feet hit the steady surface of the boat, well it was steadier than the plank was but it still had that typical rock from the gentle waves of the Thames crashing against her sides. As Gene made his way up the board with his arms stretched out to the side mocking her lousy sense of balance he took one foot off the wood and hopped the rest of the way whilst Alex tutted at him and started to look around to find the entrance to the bottom of the boat where she supposed the drugs would have been stored.

Gene jogged over slowly to join her and pointed out a trap door that was just behind the wheel, the wood of it had partly rotted away and Alex worried slightly that it might collapse right there and then. The metal ring on it looked relatively new compared to the rest of the boat and had probably been replaced recently. Suddenly remembering that they needed to have at least some evidence to secure a conviction she dug a pair of plastic gloves out of her pocket and put them on before bending over to pull open the trap door and reveal a steep set of steps leading down to the hull.

Instantly the smell hit them, it wasn't anything as horrible as rotting flesh but it definitely wasn't drugs. So rather cautiously now they made their way down the steps as they creaked under their feet. It was a small dark room that they found themselves in and for a moment it appeared that that was it, there was nothing else down there just those for closely packed walls. Until their eyes grew accustomed to the dark, and Gene's eyes rested on a heavy wooden door set into the wall on their left, his fingers drifted across the wooden panels feeling for a handle but leaving a mouldy green residue on the ends of his fingers. As his fingers closed around the cold metal of the door handle and pulled it gently downwards slightly fearful that it would snap off in his hands. If it was possible, as the door opened the smell increased and Alex and Gene were met with the sight of a room full of cages that housed animals. Closest to them they could see parrots, dogs and possibly even a tortoise but Alex wasn't sure.

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_Just yet another reminder to read and review, I know I'm a nag but I really do appreciate_ _any feedback that I get._


	26. Cats, Dogs and Parrots

Sorry it's been a bit longer to get this chapter up but it is over twice as long as my previous one and is the longest chapter

_Sorry it's been a bit longer to get this chapter up but it is over twice as long as my previous one and is the longest chapter in this fan fiction. It may have been up a bit quicker if I hadn't discovered 5 stories that were updated last night that I absolutely had to read, as they were very good. This has been proof read by Eliephant so if you have any issues with spelling or grammar talk to her. Or complain to me and I'll complain to her. Love you really. Just to prove it, she's put up a new story on Torchwood, Birthday Surprises, it's a really good story, with some exciting twists, read and she'll love you as much as I do. So there's nothing really left for me to waffle on about apart from begging you to read and review, I know you're all out there because the stats thing tells me, anonymous reviews are accepted so even if you don't have an account you can tell me what you think._

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

"What the fuck," exclaimed Gene, this had got to be one of the most bizarre case results that he had ever come across, the expression on his face seemed to be mirrored on Alex's. Their mouths wide open; in unison they turned to face each other and then snapped their heads back.

"Bloody hell," Alex breathed out, amazed and disgusted at the amount of cages crammed into on boat. "Do you think it could just be a cover Guv? The drugs could be hidden somewhere," she asked, trying to work out what had gone wrong. Had they got the wrong boat? Was Gene's 'grass' reliable?

"What is it with you and hide and seek?" he commented, echoing a joke from earlier.

Alex managed a weak smile but she was reminded of one of the few memories she had of playing with her mum. She had hidden in that chest for hours waiting for Caroline to come and find her, but Evan had come round... Alex now knew what they had probably been doing; Caroline had eventually remembered her only daughter and had come to find her.

Noticing her sudden silence as she wandered through the cages Gene was struggling to work out what had upset her. Sure the mistreatment of the animals was upsetting but ever since the death of the Price's she hadn't allowed herself to be affected by any of the cases that they had worked on. "Not a fan of hide and seek then Bolls?" he asked.

"Just memories Gene," she whispered, "they can be replaced." Up until now she had never wanted to forget those precious days before her parent's death but now having learnt of her father's betrayal and her mother's affair they all seemed to be tarnished and fake.

With a gentle squeeze of her hand Gene continued peering under cages, searching for the large shipment of drugs that he had been promised.

After about half an hour's repeated tours of the ship's hull they came to a mutual agreement that there definitely weren't any drugs to be found on board. The lack of sleep had caught up with Alex and her eyelids kept closing of their own accord. "Right then Bolls, we'd better go and see how Molly is," prompted Gene.

Alex had quite forgotten about her daughter, having gotten used to a world where Molly didn't exist, and instantly felt terrible for doing so. All sorts of images began to flash through her minds but instead of memories they were possibilities. What if they got to the car to late and Molly had wandered off? What if whomever the drugs were for had taken her hostage?

Once again their eyes searched the walls for the thick wooden door as they had become somewhat disorientated in their wanderings between the various assortments of animals. Just as the door was about to close and the fresh sea air hit their nostrils a faint squawking could be heard to say "Right then Bolls."

"Bloody parrot," mumbled Gene as he gazed intently on Alex's behind as she rather elegantly ascended the groaning steps and entered into the fresh and new daylight above him.

The rising tides of the river Thames caused the captured boat to tug slightly at its moorings, clumsily tied by Chris after he ran back from the squad car having realised that his Guv and DI had just boarded a boat that could sail away at any minute, and was sure that he would have been in the firing line for that. Well Ray probably would have been but as he was only a DS he was quite sure that all the blame would have been passed down to him, and he couldn't blame Goddard because she was a woman and that was sexist. Wasn't it?

Walking down the Gangplank on the way back proved to be slightly trickier than it had been on the way up due to the fact that the bottom of it had moved position slightly and Alex was quite scared that she would get half way and then fall in if the board moved. The water below them wasn't a particularly welcoming sight, not the clear blue colour that one would hope for but a murky brown and green filled with seaweed algae, and any litter that the population of London thought to be insignificant enough to throw in.

She had suggested that being the big and brave Manc Lion that he was Gene might like to go first; however he had made up some excuse to do with how she weighed considerably less than he did so due to the laws of Quantum Physics she had a smaller chance of falling in. It really amused her when he tried to make himself sound clever, well he was clever but in his own particular way, he could analyse a crime scene in seconds and tell you where you should look and who you should interview, but a master of Quantum Physics he most certainly was not. So rather begrudgingly she had gone first, slowly edging her feet down the flimsy wooden board one hand firmly held in Gene's, her safety line back to the boat. As she passed the half way point she could feel her fingers slipping out of Gene's hand, his arm unable to stretch anymore and unable to step onto the board in case he dislodged it and they both fell into the water.

Feeling the board begin to slide out from under her feet Alex pushed off and flew through the air much as Ray had done before, thankfully her feet landing safely on the bank beneath her. However this did mean that Gene's chances of walking across the plank to her were slim, well actually non-existent. Looking down they could see the plank bobbing leisurely amongst the other debris, and Gene's lips formed the familiar pout that Alex was so used to seeing, and actually thought was quite sexy, though she didn't tell him that as, well it would do far too much for his ego. "You're going to have to jump Gene," she declared, unable to see any other way back for him.

Upon hearing this Gene looked down nervously at the water, it suddenly seeming quite dark and even scary. "Oh well, I guess the Gene Genie had to learn to fly without his magic carpet sometime," he joked but Alex could see the fear in his eyes and out of habit crossed her fingers for luck.

Walking up and down the side of the boat Gene mentally measured the distance between him and the land at different points, finally deciding on a spot about 2 metres to the side of Alex he clambered up onto the side rail and took a deep breath. Slowly and steadily he bent his knees and forced himself off the side, bringing his upper body forward causing his long over coat to billow out to the sides catching the air and slowing down his flight considerably. Finally as he started to descend his feet landed a few cm in and his coat settled back down into place.

Both he and Alex exhaled at the same time as she came running over to him, "a very light landing there Gene, and you claimed to be too heavy to go first."

"I used to be a boxer in my youth Bolls; I'm very light on my feet." Being a boxer made him seem quite masculine and butch he thought; well that was why his dad had made him do it anyway. Apparently as a child he had been too much of a 'mummy's boy,' preferring to stay at home and help her with the housework than go out with his dad. Though that could well have had something to do with the fact that whenever he did go out he always had another bruise to add to his collection.

"That explains the good dancing then," Alex suggested.

Walking over to her Gene shrugged his coat off one arm and wrapped it around her, in a semi-protective and semi-caring gesture, so that she was now carefully wrapped under his arm a feat he wouldn't usually be able to achieve but she had decided to opt for flat shoes that day so she was small enough to fit under his shoulder. Alex was able to breathe in what Gene called 'man stink' but she didn't care what it was called all she knew was the slightest sniff and her heart was set racing blood around her body and her knees actually weakened. She had never used to believe that love could have this effect on people, when she was married she had always assumed that it was love, she liked him and must have fancied him at one point but it had never felt like this with him. As they sauntered slowly towards the car Alex wrapped both of her arms around Gene's waist, well where his waist would be, and buried her face in his chest only keeping half an eye on the track that they were making.

From Molly's position in the car she could see her mother and Gene walking towards her in the wing mirror of the Quattro, she had actually briefly fallen asleep and her dreams were filled with the adventures that she would have in the alternative world that she had found her way to. At first she had been worried having seen the way her mother had buried her face in Gene, thinking that somehow she had been upset, but later realised that they were just thoroughly loved up and that didn't bother her.

Here her mother's emotions were far more open for people to see, before she had very much had two separate lives her work and her home. Keeping them very separate and letting hardly any emotions show, her day to day appearance was happiness but it never changed if it was rain or shine she was always happy in front of Molly, whereas here though she had never seen her mother sad the cheerfulness seemed much more genuine and in a way blissful. She could see them laughing at something that one of them had said, but they drew quieter as they got nearer to the car.

"Alright there Molls?" enquired Gene as he reached through the now open door for his radio, which was lying on the dashboard from the previous day when he had radioed the station to tell Shaz to make sure there was a mug of tea and some pink wafers on his desk for when he arrived there.

"I'm fine thanks," Molly replied, she was finding it hard to keep the smile from her face as she twisted around in her seat to see her mother giving Gene a quick kiss on the cheek before entering the car and waiting for him to have finished on the radio. "How did it go mum," she asked, always keen to find out the most intricate details of the cases that her mum worked on, she was hoping to follow in her mother's footsteps though Alex had previously suggested that she became a lawyer instead, like her grandparents had been.

Outside the car Gene was wandering around aimlessly talking into the brick shaped radio that CID where stuck with due to lack of funding to replace them with the new and slightly improved versions, though they still weren't comparable to those Alex was used to. "Viv," he was saying, "give them animal loving charity people a ring," a voice could be heard faintly from the radio, "Yeah that's right the RSPC bloody A that were giving us grief last month about something or other, any way tell them to get there arses down to the London docks cause there's a ship load of animals for them to take in." Viv could be faintly heard to be making notes in the background and repeating what the Guv had said back to him. "Oh and Viv," he added, "tell them to bring a ladder or something to get on board with, the gang planks knackered."

With that he threw the radio up in the air and rather neatly caught in again after it had flipped over once or twice and headed back towards them in the car. With a glance at the dashboard he announced, "Time for school I guess then Molls," feeling terrible sending her there, remembering how he himself had hated his secondary school days. With his dad's reputation as an alcoholic and womaniser, having slept with the head teacher and her secretary, he was the main choice of bait for the school bullies adding again to his collection of green and blue marks upon his skin.

"Mmn I guess," groaned Molly, "but then it's the weekend, and in a few weeks it's my birthday," the little girl added positively.

Her birthday? Thought Alex, but she had missed that. Surely that had happened when she was in the coma. Gene was confused as well, having heard Alex on numerous occasions mumble about having to get home to her daughter's birthday party that was happening that day. "I thought your birthday was a few weeks ago," he interjected, "your mum kept going on about getting to see you in time to blow out the candles."

Oh dear, thought Molly had she put her foot in it again. It would be so much simpler if her mum just told Gene about the time travelling policemen theory, but then maybe he really would start to doubt her sanity. "Didn't you check the date when you arrived mum, you were a few weeks ahead of yourself," she said trying to explain away any confusion caused, "she gets easily confused," she added for Gene's benefit.

Sounds about right thought Gene, the Bolly he knew was definitely easily confused. "Oh right," replied Alex, everything beginning to click into place, "so what day did I arrive here then," she asked, turning towards Gene.

"25th of June Bolls," he answered, after wards thinking that he replied rather too quickly. He wasn't usually too good with dates, he had nearly always forgotten his ex's birthday and their anniversary's, so why did this date stick so much? Worst day of my life that was Bolls," he boasted but giving her thigh a quick squeeze as he said it so that she knew he was joking. Removing his hand from her jean-clad leg he shifted the car into gear and they roared off along the rather dusty tack, which they had crept along that morning.

Once they hit the main roads however Gene's driving slowed down considerably, stopping at lights even if they had only just turn amber and letting any old lady who wanted to cross the road, even if they were pushing zimmer frames they were people that he was notoriously known to ignore when driving.

...

Just as the church clock on the chapel of Molly's school began to ring to inform them that it was eight o'clock Gene pulled up outside, amazed at how much time had passed since they had set off that morning. She seemed surprisingly happy to be there, as she quickly undid her seatbelt and collected her new leather school bag from underneath the seat, this was all considerable improvement on her opinion of the strict catholic school the previous day.

Looking left and right out of the window for any other vehicles coming along the road, Gene opened his door, he was abnormally careful when it came to looking after his car, Alex did the same apart from looking out for any pedestrians that chose to use the pavement, she didn't want to be responsible for knocking out any of Molly's school friends. The only down side of the car that Molly could think of was its lack of back doors, so her mum or Gene always had to get out of the car so that she could clamber over their seats to the open door.

Cautiously she scrambled out of the car, watching her head on the roof, which was quite low when you were stood up on a car seat. Alex could see Gene thinking about the mess Molly's shoes might be making on his seat covers. However this was all solved when Molly wrapped her seemingly tiny arms around Gene's waist and buried her face in his coat, much as Alex had done earlier, rather taken aback Gene warily returned the hug before stroking her hair, taking care not to ruffle it as if she was anything like her mum she wouldn't take kindly to her hair being messed up if she didn't have a comb and mirror readily at hand.

Having hugged her mother as well the little girl ran off into school to join the streams of children skipping in, watched carefully by the teachers so that no harm could possibly come to them. A broad grin was stretched across Gene's face as he and Alex pulled away onto the road and round the corner. "She's a great kid Bolls," he remarked.

Alex nearly let out an awwwh, but decided not to as it might make the apparently soft Manc Lion become fierce again. At first it had surprised her that Gene had softened up so easily when he had always seemed to be big and tough but lately she had realised that he was very adaptable and changed his personality to the situation. In the office he was loud and severe enough to command respect and on the street was even more so, so as to frighten what he called the 'criminal underworld.' But at home, well what Alex now thought of as home, he was soft, playful and genuinely kind.

Just then the radio haphazardly placed on the dashboard crackled into life and Ray's voice could not so clearly be heard to come from it, picking it up in one hand Gene went to speak into it when he was interrupted by Alex, "you can't speak to Ray and drive at the same time Gene, its illegal."

"Hang on a second Ray I've got Bolly Knickers here trying to tell me what the law is that I am in charge of enforcing," he moaned before going on to listen to what Ray had to say.

Realising her mistake Alex pretended to be annoyed with him and found something very interesting to look at outside the window, which meant that she had her back to him.

A while afterwards Gene had thrown the radio back down onto the dashboard and had blown the horn at several cars making Alex wince as he swerved past them, she felt something lazily tracing a pattern down her back, "both hands on the wheel please Gene," she said in mock annoyance, still refusing to turn around to see him.

Removing the his finger from her back he then poked her side gently to make her squirm round so that she had to face him, however as a punishment Alex took his finger and promptly nibbled it slightly whilst looking at the pale white ring left presumably from when he had used to wear a wedding ring there. Seeing this Gene said, "you've got one too you know Bolls," seeing her slightly questioning look he added, "spotted it last night when you were sleeping and the moonlight caught it." Now it was Alex whose face bore a smile, something that seemed to be happening a lot more regularly than it had used to. "Ray said that the pets were supposedly for a pet shop nearby so we'll pop in on our way back from the station."

...

The pet shop in question appeared to be boarded up completely outside and the blue paint work was peeling off in big flakes, an old man with a few strands of silvery grey hair and a pot belly from far too many indulgent meals was bending over outside nailing the final board into place.

Slamming the door of the Quattro to announce his arrival Gene strode over towards the balding man who was slowly straightening his back so that he could come to eye level with Gene, well as near as was possible for a man of his short stature compared to one like Gene's.

"Alright mate?" he asked, not giving the man time to reply before he continued, "DCI Hunt, apparently you are expecting a large shipment of animals which will be sold in your pet shop."

"Does it look like I'm going to be selling any pets? I ain't got no shipments coming in, we've gone bust," he replied sounding slightly upset so Gene backed away from him, not wanting to get too involved with an over emotional male.

"Thanks for your help mate," he said as he walked away and revved the engine before setting off once more.

Just as he was about to comment on Alex's choice of sensible shoes they were once again interrupted by the radio, and Chris's voice could be heard faintly over the now increasing crackle, "Guv, we've got a problem."


	27. A holiday

_I can only apologize for the length of time that it has taken me to update on this last chapter, I call it writers block. I had the chapter all planned out it just wouldn't write down properly. So now it's not exactly what I had planned and I've cut the next two chapters out of the story as I felt they were irrelevant really. A little bit of plot in this one but not much to speak of, mainly fluff really. The next chapter will be the last one so this one is just building up to that. Well when I say the last one I am hoping that there will be a sequel if you want one, but I'll let you decide that when you see the killer cliffhanger that I will leave you with. So enjoy the fluff whilst it lasts because you may kill me after the last chapter. Hope to have that one up soon as I am looking forward to writing it._

Chapter Twenty Seven

"Bloody hell, you leave 'em alone for ten minutes," Gene muttered under his breath ,his eyebrows furrowing deeper into his brow, obviously frustrated at CID's inability to function without him and Alex.

Alex could see the shutters coming up, the Gene Genie had gone back into work mode which it appeared had two different settings the jokey Gene or the more angry and morose Gene, which unfortunately seemed to be the one that she was going to be stuck with for the rest of the car journey. Attempting to lighten the sudden change in mood she said, "What's the worst that could have happened anyway?"

Oh god you really don't want to go into that thought Gene, is mind passing back over the years since Sam had left when he had been forced to give the pair of clowns more responsibility. Alex really hadn't realised how stupid she had been on that evening in Luigi's when she had suggested that he gave Chris and Ray more responsibility.

_It was a few weeks after Tyler had driven his car into the river and Gene had pretty much had a few weeks holiday forced upon him after he had fallen asleep on the job several times because of the large amounts of whiskey that he had consumed. Ray who had been acting DI now was acting as a DCI and somehow between him and Chris they had managed to arrest a murder suspect's twin brother, not even bothering to notice that he didn't fit any of the descriptions that had helped them to get the name in the first place. _

_So of course then when another murder was committed they were thoroughly confused and it was Cartwright who had eventually pointed out their mistake to them._

Since then he had given them as little responsibility as possible, he may take risks but it was very rare that they didn't pay off, as far as he was concerned leaving Chris and Ray in charge wasn't a risk it was suicide. 

"What's the worst that could have happened?" Alex repeated, her words interrupting his thoughts and she giggled at the thought of what they could possibly have done wrong.

"Well Bolls, they could have raided my drinking cabinet and been sick in all of the waste paper bins" he replied, noticing the slight drop in the mood.

"A drinking cabinet" exclaimed Alex, "I thought it was just the one bottle of whiskey" _Did Gene really drink more than she already knew about._

"Just the one bottle!" he spluttered "what did you think I do when a case goes really badly, anyway no one knows they're in the filing cabinet."

"but... but where are all of the files," she muttered astounded.

"Wherever Shaz chooses to keep them," he replied unable to see why she was so shocked. The radio crackled again and he angrily picked it up "What the bloody hell is wrong Chris," he barked probably causing Chris to drop the radio at the other end.

"Bloody hell," he muttered before throwing the brick shaped radio into the foot well at Alex's feet before slamming his foot down on the accelerator and speeding off along the road filled with rush hour traffic.

...

As Gene strode purposefully down the corridor to CID, Alex had to jog slightly to keep up with him, still not knowing what Chris had said on the radio. Gene had been, for once, too busy concentrating on driving to answer her questions his eyes practically glued to the road.

"Bloody drugged up animals" he muttered as he waited for Alex to catch up with him.

"What!" she asked, not for the first time that day she was shocked, what the hell was he talking about? And he thought that the things she said were weird and didn't make any sense.

"Bloody drugs smuggled in the stupid fckin animals," he declared.

"Well of course that would always be an avenue that we would have to explore," she reviewed, "I mean they do it with people so why not with animals."

"This is all that useful information that you neglected to tell me then D I Drake, exactly what is your use in this team?" he joked, bewildered at how she acted as if knowing this was all second nature to her.

"Well I am here to argue with you with your wrong, and of course to shag you after an argument when we are making up. Which I must say are all better reasons than when I asked you a similar question a few weeks ago," she suggested resuming that nonstop banter that occurred every day just to keep the atmosphere as friendly and cheerful as was possible in CID.

"I don't reckon he's done it yet... Done what?... Shagged her." A voice crowed from inside CID, about three different sentences strung into one.

"What's Chris done now, inhaled helium," Gene joked but Alex could see the sweat beading on his forehead at the possibility that their colleagues could be talking about their relationship.

"Chris what the hell did you do that for," they could hear Ray yell as together they pushed the set of double doors open.

"I was trying to shut it up so that the Guv didn't hear it; you know what he's like about us respecting ma'am." Chris replied as he could be seen to be racing around the room clambering over desks and waving around precariously at the chequered ceiling.

"Well the Guv did hear it Christopher you Nancy arsed fairy boy," bellowed the Guv startling Chris so much that he promptly fell off the desk and crashed into a filing cabinet.

"Oh Chris do be careful," pleaded Alex as she and Shaz trotted over to see what the damage was.

"Sorry Guv... ma'am... it's just that stupid parrot," Chris stuttered, his eyes brimming with tears rubbing his arm after it had collided with the corner of a filing cabinet.

"Aww baby," Shaz cooed as Gene stormed into his office and raided his filing cabinet seemingly already worn out having been in for a mere five minutes.

"Ray," Alex barked, "fetch me the pink wafers."

"The Guv doesn't usually like pink wafers with his whisky boss, says it spoils the flavour," he griped, reluctant to follow Alex's instructions especially when it came to pink wafers.

"They're not for Gene Ray, they're for the parrot." She sighed; exasperated that no one else seemed to know that parrot's like pink wafers.

"You're going to feed pink wafers to a parrot," a random voice questioned a voice from one of the many miscellaneous members of CID who Alex still didn't have a clue what jobs they did.

"Oh don't worry I'll replace them," she vowed sarcastically.

A mere twenty minutes later and the parrot was once again secured in its cage, having eaten nearly a whole packet of pink wafers the rest which had been consumed by Chris who had claimed that they would make him feel much better.

...

Later that evening when all the animals had been cleared by the RSPCA, a significant number of packets of drugs had been recovered, and the boat driver and associates charged and awaiting trial Alex and Gene finally headed off after the rest of the team who had left a good hour before. Molly had rung the station to inform them that she was going to a friend's house, so they had decided to stay late and clear up the mess that had been made that day, and not all of it had been the parrot. "Honestly like having an office full of kids high on smarties." Gene had declared as he gave up pretending to be helping Alex and sat on her desk, pouting slightly, and watching her work.

"You look stressed Gene," she'd murmured into his ear as she also gave up on the mess and started to idly stroke his neck which seemed to have a soothing effect as the frown lines on his forehead visibly softened.

"Mmmmn, I am very stressed Lex," he moaned, "Need you to make it all go away."

'Lex' she repeated it over in her head, I quite like that she thought. Though the way he kind of purred when he said it may have had something to do with it. "You need a holiday Gene" she had suggested, nibbling his earlobe gently whilst continuing running her fingers down his neck and onto his shoulders.

"No... we need a holiday," he'd replied.


	28. Night Flight

_So this is the last chapter, in this story as well though I will probably do a sequel. Please review!! P.S. sorry it's been a long time all I can say is homework, homework and more homework. _

* * *

Chapter Twenty Eight

It was six months since Gene's proposal of a holiday and finally the Super had managed to persuade him that yes it was O.K. that he and DI Drake's holiday coincidentally coincided, he was sure that CID would be able to manage for a few weeks as he had persuade a DI from another division to come down and babysit them, well the Super had said 'supervise' but everyone knew that he had meant babysit.

Alex, Gene and Molly had piled into the Quattro early that morning, it's boot laden with cases and the spare passenger seat was also piled high, now halfway on the journey down to Manchester, Molly had fallen asleep her head resting on a battered brown suitcase that contained all of Gene's luggage, it appeared that he was no exception to the rule and like all men had decided to pack extremely lightly.

Gene had insisted that they were never going to fly from a poncy London airport so they were driving down to Manchester airport, one that he was sure wouldn't screw up the first holiday that he had taken in at least ten years.

It had been Molly's birthday when Gene had announced that they were all going on holiday; he had even booked it so that it was in Molly's half term in October. The summer holidays had passed by quickly with Molly staying with friends or Alex taking the day off. Gene had even been known to spend the morning or afternoon with her at the park or swimming bath. What's more no one had so much as raised an eyebrow, giving Gene and Alex serious doubts about their ability as detectives.

Molly had promptly announced that his was undoubtedly the best birthday present ever, before going over to apologise to the parrot that Alex and Gene had brought back from CID, the blue macaw had been named Yuri Gagarin after her parrot back in 2008 and of course the first man in space. Alex had then pointed out that she hadn't opened any of her other presents yet so she should hurry up and do so, so that she could be sure it was definitely the best present ever.

Alex had bought her the many of the presents that she could remember receiving when she was 12, a pink radio with a material case that she could remember were just beginning to come back into fashion in 2008 although then they were digital radio's of course, a doll and of course plenty of clothes as Molly hadn't appeared to have a suitcase with her in school so they had enjoyed a shopping trip and spent lots on the most fashionable 80's clothes. Of course Alex had bought some for herself as well. Gene once more had excelled himself buying Molly a beautiful silver locket, which he had put a photo of Alex and Molly in; they had taken it in a photo booth earlier that week.

The drive so far had been fairly enjoyable but after the two hours of continual banter between Gene and Alex had faded out their patience was beginning to wear thin, "Yellow car," Alex announced as she poked Gene in the arm.

"What the bloody hell are you on about," he laughed, surprised at Alex's sudden outburst.

"It's a game me and Molly used to play when she was little," she had been racking her brains for a game that they could play in an attempt to keep her awake for the rest of the journey, she knew how lonely it could be driving when everybody else has fallen asleep. "If we pass a mini, a yellow car, a learner driver, or a sports car then you have to shout out and pinch my arm before I do."

"I'm sure a man of my calibre can manage that game Bolls, if it will keep you entertained," he said smiling and scanning the horizon for any upcoming minis or sports cars that could get him ahead in this game Alex seemed intent on playing.

After Alex had cried out _mini_ or _learner driver _about ten times in two minutes Gene's arm was beginning to feel rather painful from the number of times that he had been pinched and was also suspicious about why he had never seen any of these cars that had supposedly passed them on the nearly deserted motorway.

"Mini," she cried again rather excitedly, turning around in his chair he looked back between the piles of suitcases and Molly's head, looking for any sign that a mini had driven past a few seconds ago.

"Alex a mini definitely did not go past then," he muttered, pretending to be disgruntled.

"Are you calling me a liar Mr. Hunt?" she asked in mock surprise.

"Yes I am D I Drake, and I don't see why I should be punished for your lies"

"Punished?"

"Yes, it does hurt when you pinch my arm you know," he whined.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry Gene, maybe I'll have to find something else to do to you then," Alex whispered suggestively, leaning in to nibble his ear causing the car to wiggle across the road slightly as he momentarily lost concentration.

"Yellow car," her voice tickled in his ear as she planted kisses slowly down his neck, her tongue flicking against the musky layer of his skin.

"Red car," she muttered as her slow hot kisses moved onto his jaw line. Gene finding it hard to concentrate on the road ahead, thankfully it was fairly empty.

"I think that's against the rules you know Bolls," he groaned, wanting to press his lips against hers so badly that his knees were actually going weak.

"I don't care Gene, pull over."

Those two words made his reflex action kick in as he swerved over on to the hard shoulder, "Alex," he murmured, "learner driver."

"I'm not a learner at driving anything Gene," Alex whispered seductively as she slid her hands around his waist, which had become considerably slimmer over the past few months.

"What time's that plane Bolls?"

"We've got a few hours yet," she whispered.

* * *

As they stepped over the threshold and onto the plane a blast of cold air hit them followed by what seemed like the sweltering heat of the plane. Already many passengers were in their seats and the sweat starting to trickle down their brows. "Christ!" It's hotter than Edgehampton in here," Gene announced "why don't they open a bloody window?"

"Because Gene then... oh never mind," Alex gave up as Gene's attention had wondered to the petite blond airhostess who was wiggling her way up the aisle.

"Are you O.K. finding your seat sir?" she questioned Gene, rapidly batting her heavily mascara coated eyelashes in his direction.

"Yes thanks Love, we're doing just fine," he replied smoothly. _Bloody suck up, thought Alex. Who the hell calls random strangers sir these days? It's 1981! _

"Mum... mum," Molly was tugging on the sleeve of Alex's white coat.

"Wait a second Molly," she snapped rather suddenly; _I've just got to get rid of the blue eyed bimbo. _"Gene," she called, whilst shrugging off her coat, "I can't reach to put this in the overhead storage." Turning his attention back to Alex, he found himself with his face practically buried in between her breasts as she stretched up, trying to reach, "oops," she laughed, though it was of course not by accident.

_Christ on a bloody bike, thought Gene, that air hostess has got absolutely nothing on Alex, _"Come on Bolls I'll get that," stretching up to his full length, which was a sight seen not too often, he slid Alex's bag seemingly effortlessly into the compartment. Whilst he was up there taking the chance to gaze down at Alex's ample cleavage, "Nice view" he muttered.

"Pardon?" Alex questioned, though she knew perfectly well what he had said.

At that precise moment Molly chose to look up from the in flight magazine and safety procedures that she had immersed herself in, "I bet you get a nice view from these windows," he mumbled perhaps slightly ashamed at having made such a comment in public, but probably not, he is the Gene Genie after all.

"Can I have the window seat please?" Molly asked, looking a picture of innocence as she heard Gene mention the view from the aeroplane window

* * *

A long drawn out five hours later the plane had taken off and was well out over the Atlantic Ocean. Molly was still excitedly exclaiming at how she could see the clouds whereas Gene and Alex were sat rather rigidly in their seats dying for some peace and quiet.

The airhostesses had finally finished their lengthy rounds, providing the passengers with hot cups of tasteless tea and coffee, whilst being declined their kind offer of cardboard tasting sandwiches.

Slowly a small scrawny man stumbled his way to the front of the plane, knocking into various chair arms on his way. His dark hair slicked back with grease that Alex could only imagine on the teenagers of the modern world.

"Oh look mum, that cloud looks like a floating chicken," announced Molly, the excitement still in her voice. "How much longer till we get to Disney land?"

"A long time Molly and can we please have some peace and quiet," Alex snapped, before closing her eyes and leaning back in the head rest, the stress and fatigue evident on her brow.

"Hh Hhhhm," a cough interrupted her musings. "Hh Hhhhm," apparently not having got the attention that he wanted the scrawny man coughed again. Finally the rest of the plane had stopped whatever they were doing to amuse themselves, from crosswords to arguing with their respective partners. Sensing this he launched into an obviously well planned speech, keeping a tight grip on his rucksack as he did so, "By doing this I, and I alone will be setting the world to rights... I'll watch as the world falls down, anyhow, anyway and anywhere... To you this is just a planet of dreams; your lives have been dreamt since those wishful beginnings... I will be a future legend, known for making the world see their problems... I'm sure you'll be missed... at the beginning you will be anyway but just like you they will imagine and wake up on a foggy day in London town... they'll have moved on. So I will enjoy my night flight as I go to meet the angels of promise, whilst all I can say to you is don't look down!"

* * *

_Just a random piece of trivia to interest you after I hope that killer cliff-hanger, in that last paragraph 12 David Bowie song titles were mentioned. I have planned to write a sequel, but if you don't feel it's required I could just leave it there. Let me know what you think, I hope I'll get lots of reviews as that was the last chapter. _


End file.
